Rent-A-Center, Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Acima Holdings LLC, a leading provider of virtual lease-to-own (LTO) solutions. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021 subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.
“We’re excited to welcome Acima to the Rent-A-Center family,” said Mitch Fadel, Chief Executive Officer, Rent-A-Center in a statement. “Founder Aaron Allred and his team have created a leading virtual LTO solution for retailers and consumers. We all share a common vision to expand the virtual LTO offering across a broader set of retail partners and to meet the needs of more customers through an integrated omnichannel strategy. Acima will help us strengthen our organization, accelerate growth and increase our virtual partner base, allowing us to better serve more consumers with the flexibility of LTO.”
Acima is a fast growing, profitable LTO fintech company with a national presence in retail partner stores and e-commerce platforms, and a broad range of product verticals. Founded in 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Acima has grown annual revenues from $97 million in 2016 to an expected $1.25 billion in 2020.
Acima will continue to operate out of Salt Lake City and will incorporate the complementary Preferred Dynamix platform to create a frictionless LTO experience for consumers and retail partners. Upon the closing of the transaction, the current Acima management team will report to Preferred Dynamix Executive Vice President Jason Hogg, and the combined business will be reported in the Preferred Lease segment.
“This combination marries Acima’s advanced decisioning with Preferred Dynamix’s complementary and proprietary digital platform,” said Hogg in a statement. “The resulting set of fintech capabilities will support faster innovation, allowing us to bring aspirational brands to consumers across a broader set of e-commerce and retail partners.”
“We’re thrilled to be part of a Rent-A-Center team that’s modernizing LTO to serve the estimated over 60 million unbanked and underbanked consumers in the United States,” added Allred. “We share Mitch and Jason’s vision to create the most dynamic LTO omni-channel shopping experience in the industry.”
About Rent-A-Center, Inc.
Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCII) is an industry leading omni-channel lease-to-own provider for the credit constrained customer. The Rent-A-Center Business and Mexico segments provide lease-to-own options on products such as furniture, appliances, consumer electronics, and computers in approximately 1,950 Rent-A-Center stores in the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico and on its e-commerce platform, Rentacenter.com. The Franchising segment is a national franchiser of approximately 460 franchise locations. Rent-A-Center is headquartered in Plano, Texas. For additional information about the Company, visit Rentacenter.com or Investor.rentacenter.com.
About ACIMA
Acima’s proprietary technology LTO-driven point-of-sale solution is designed to be a fast and easy solution for both merchants and consumers while its online decision engine provides merchant partners and retail customers with an automatic approval decision within a matter of seconds. For more information, visit www.acima.com.
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