Western Union Walks Away From $500 Million Intermex Deal; Miami Firm Vows to Fight

Featured image: A sidewalk delivery robot outside a Western Union shop in downtown Miami, in a November 2022 file photo. Photo: Phillip Pessar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Cropped to 16:9.

The Western Union Intermex deal, a $500 million all-cash takeover of Miami-based remittance company International Money Express, collapsed this week. Western Union sent a termination notice on the evening of Nov. 10, 2026, the deadline in the merger agreement, and the termination took effect at 12:00 a.m. Eastern time on Nov. 12, according to Western Union’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Intermex says the termination is invalid and is threatening to sue.

Deal terms from the companies’ Aug. 10, 2025, announcement and SEC filings. Share price from Yahoo Finance; the gap to the offer is a Boston Report calculation.

What the deal was and how it ended

Western Union and Intermex announced the agreement on Aug. 10, 2025. Western Union, based in Denver, agreed to pay $16.00 a share in cash for Intermex, a total equity and enterprise value of about $500 million. The companies said the price was roughly a 50% premium to Intermex’s 90-day volume-weighted average share price. They expected the deal to close in mid-2026 and projected about $30 million a year in cost savings within 24 months.

That close never happened. Under the merger agreement, either side could walk away if the deal had not closed by Nov. 10, 2026. Western Union said California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) delivered final conditions of approval that evening. The company said those conditions “would have required material changes to Western Union’s business model, its agent relationships and execution of its long-term business strategy.” Its board then decided to terminate the agreement. Each company pays its own deal costs.

California was the last approval left. Western Union said it had approvals from 54 other states, territories and foreign countries, including U.S. merger clearance. Both companies’ filings say the DFPI first approved the deal on Feb. 11, 2026, and later extended that approval. Intermex said the regulator suspended the approval on Aug. 13, 2026, for further review. The DFPI said it reopened the review in August because of “significant market developments and changes in federal policy” affecting the remittance market.

What California demanded

The DFPI announced its conditional approval on Nov. 10. Its public summary lists three groups of conditions. Both companies would have to take steps to detect and deter fraud and track errors that consumers report. They could not limit customers’ choice of provider at agent locations, and they could not materially reduce the number of agent locations in California. Western Union would also have to adopt stronger anti-money-laundering and anti-fraud controls, including closer oversight of its agents.

The regulator noted that Western Union remains under a court order over past violations and has previously admitted to criminal anti-money-laundering violations. In its own statement, Western Union said California “did not identify any failure” on its part to follow fraud, money-laundering or fair-access rules. It also said it remains in compliance with its Federal Trade Commission consent order.

By the numbers: a shrinking business and a 61% gap

Intermex’s latest quarterly report, filed Nov. 9, shows why the outcome matters to the company. Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $126.4 million, down from $154.9 million a year earlier. By The Boston Report’s calculation from the filing, that is a decline of $28.5 million, or 18.4%. Net income slipped to $4.3 million from $5.0 million.

The nine-month picture is weaker still. Revenue fell to $379.5 million from $460.4 million, a 17.6% drop, and operating income fell 51.2% to $21.5 million from $44.1 million, both Boston Report calculations from the filing. Intermex said it handled about 35.4 million remittances worth $15.7 billion in the first nine months, down 12.8% and 12.6%. In the third quarter, transactions fell 14.4% and the money sent fell 13.7%. Its agent network shrank by about 9.3%.

Intermex blamed a contraction in the retail remittance market, especially transfers to Latin America and the Caribbean. The filing says immigration and trade enforcement under the current Trump administration could keep affecting its revenue. Its digital channels partly offset the decline. Transactions through partners that use its remittance network grew about 145%.

Intermex shares now trade far below the deal price. The stock closed at $6.29 on Friday, Nov. 13, according to Yahoo Finance. That is $9.71, or 60.7%, below the $16 offer and 40.3% below its $10.53 close on Oct. 14, by The Boston Report’s calculation. The stock fell 14.3% on Nov. 10, the deadline day, before the termination notice went out that evening.

Why it matters for Miami business

Intermex was founded in 1994 and has its headquarters in Miami, with international offices in Puebla, Mexico, Guatemala City and Madrid. Customers use it to send money from the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy and Germany to more than 60 countries. Under the deal, Intermex would have become a wholly owned Western Union subsidiary, with Western Union saying the purchase would add scale in Latin America. For now, Intermex remains an independent public company while it disputes the termination.

Western Union is also cutting costs. Payments Dive reported that Chief Executive Devin McGranahan told analysts during the company’s third-quarter call that Western Union had cut 500 full-time jobs, with about 150 more expected to leave through a voluntary retirement program. For more on deals and markets, see our business news coverage, including Boston payments company Flywire’s latest results.

Reactions and what comes next

Intermex said on Nov. 11 that it “remains committed to the merger, has satisfied all of its obligations under the merger agreement and stands ready to complete the transaction.” It said it would pursue its remedies, including specific performance, which would mean a court ordering Western Union to close, and “substantial damages.” In a Nov. 12 filing, Intermex said its lawyers had argued that Western Union could not terminate because it breached its duty to use reasonable best efforts to win approval. Intermex also asked Western Union to challenge the DFPI’s suspension in court if needed. Intermex said Western Union withdrew its California application on Nov. 11.

Western Union said in its own filing that it disagrees and “intends to vigorously defend any such lawsuit.” A spokesperson told Payments Dive that the company “stands by its decision to terminate the merger agreement” and believes it acted in line with the agreement. “While we are disappointed that we were unable to complete the acquisition on terms that were acceptable to Western Union, we believe this course of action is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” McGranahan said in the company’s Nov. 10 statement. As of Nov. 14, neither company had disclosed a lawsuit over the deal in its SEC filings.

Sources

• The Western Union Company, Form 8-K, Nov. 10, 2026 (SEC)
• International Money Express, Form 8-K, Nov. 12, 2026 (SEC)
• International Money Express, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026 (SEC)
• Western Union: “Western Union Announces Termination of Agreement to Acquire Intermex,” Nov. 10, 2026
• Intermex: “Intermex Rejects Western Union’s Purported Termination of Merger Agreement,” Nov. 11, 2026
• California DFPI: conditions on Western Union’s proposed acquisition of Intermex, Nov. 10, 2026
• Western Union and Intermex: “Western Union to Acquire International Money Express, Inc.,” Aug. 10, 2025
• Payments Dive: “Western Union, Intermex clash,” Nov. 11, 2026
• Yahoo Finance: IMXI historical prices