Daily Recap: FISV, CRNX/VRTX, CRTO, EFX, SYNA/ON

Research evidence excerpt

Daily Recap: FISV, CRNX/VRTX, CRTO, EFX, SYNA/ON

Quick Note

July 7, 2026 SPECIAL SITUATIONS

Analysts

Michael Piccolo

212-668-9863 Fiserv, Inc. (FISV - $51.78)michael.piccolo@wedbush.com

News Reports Big Banks Explore Deal for Company's STAR Debit Network to

Skirt Durbin Fee Caps. Per the WSJ, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo,

and PNC have held preliminary talks about acquiring the debit-card network

business of FISV; owning a network can exempt a bank from Durbin Amendment

interchange-fee caps, as Capital One (COF) achieved via its $50.6B Discover

Financial acquisition. (News Article) FISV owns the STAR and Accel debit networks;

shares jumped +7.5% after-hours to $55.66 on the report. There's no certainty

of a deal, and some banks have already passed, given political-backlash risk. This

follows a brutal 12 months for FISV: a -44% single-day drop on Oct'25 guidance

cuts, activist JANA Partners' June'26 campaign pushing for non-core asset sales and

board refreshment, and CEO Mike Lyons's abrupt June'26 departure to lead Truist

Financial (TFC), replaced by Takis Georgakopoulos; shares remain down ~70% over

the past year.

TRADING VIEW: This is exactly the kind of monetization event JANA Partners

has been pushing for, and a STAR/Accel sale to a bank consortium (rather

than a financial sponsor) would be a credible, high-value validation of FISV's

underlying network assets at a moment when the market has assigned the stock

a distressed multiple (~6x 2026E EPS per some estimates). We'd expect any sale

price to reflect strategic rather than financial-buyer economics given the Durbin-

exemption motive is worth real, recurring interchange revenue to the acquiring

banks, potentially supporting a premium valuation for the network versus a

standalone sum-of-the-parts.