In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. In the Western Union in the 30s of the 20th century worked 14 thousand couriers delivering telegrams. 1998 - the number of points of money transfers worldwide reached 50,000. The network of money transfers of Western Union is the world's largest. Most service points of Western Union work in the time convenient for customers throughout the week and throughout the year. In April 1851 companions registered in Albany New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company (NYMVPTC), which included founded two years before New York State Printing Telegraph Company. The size of the commission fee for the transfer is charged according to the Western Union tariffs and depends on the amount of money sent. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. In 1991, Western Union has sold some low-profit division of the company AT & T, GM Hughes Electronics, and to some others. In the same year the company changed its name to New Valley Corp. Thanks to cooperation with Western Union the Associated Press at the end of the XIX century took almost monopolistic position in the U.S. market news. In 2000 was launched the Web site westernunion.com, with which users from certain countries can independently transfer funds online.