Perfect Match...

Implications: 1) Financial services offered by FISERV are now more robust and provide portfolio management services to the industry 2) Most financial services companies MUST rely on the expertise of solution providers - FISERV serves this market well with the new addition of CheckFree

Analysis: FULL DISCLOSURE - MARK MARIOTTI HAS BEEN IN THE PAST (NO CURRENT RELATIONSHIP) ENGAGED BY ONE OF THE CHECKFREE DIVISIONS AND DOES NOT DISCUSS ANY SPECIFICS OF SAID DIVISION

The global space for providing a comprehensive amount of services to Financial Services firms is vast. And, the players within this space are shrinking and becoming much more robust in their offerings.

Most clients will appreciate the one-stop-shop approach with much better integration.

CheckFree offers FISERV payment processing and portfolio management which rounds out their offerings. Each an every day the compliance and adminstration requirements of Financial Services firms becomes more and more demanding. Most want verticle integration and will look to FISERV for processing.