In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. 1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. 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. Western Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money orders. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.