CheckFree Agrees to Buy Rival

CheckFree Holdings Corp., which lets consumers pay bills online, agreed to pay $1 billion in stock for closely held rival TransPoint, a joint venture of First Data Corp. and Microsoft Corp. CheckFree said it will exchange 17 million shares for TransPoint, giving First Data, Microsoft and TransPoint investor Citigroup Inc. a combined 23% stake in CheckFree. The three companies agreed to pay CheckFree, which also is backed by Intuit Inc., $100 million in cash when the transaction is completed. Microsoft agreed to feature CheckFree’s electronic bill-payment services in future applications for five years and guaranteed $120 million in revenue to CheckFree. First Data and CheckFree said they would use and promote each other’s services, providing $60 million in sales or cost savings to CheckFree. CheckFree announced the deal after the close of regular trading. Its shares closed off $1.88 at $68.25 on Nasdaq.