When FIS acquired Worldpay for $43 billion in 2019, it did so with the hope of stoking its own internal growth and keeping up with competitors. A little less than four years after that acquisition was announced, FIS is spinning Worldpay off into its own stand-alone company and even writing off $17.6 billion to do it.

What happened? And where do FIS and Worldpay go from here? This Javelin Strategy & Research note examines the factors that led FIS to the acquisition in the first place, why things didn’t work out as planned at the time of the purchase, how Worldpay might operate as a stand-alone business—get ready for more mergers-and-acquisition activity—and how the merchant acquiring landscape is far different now as the companies go about uncoupling.