In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. In 1920, Western Union has implemented the world's first transmission of images over the ocean. In 1866, Sibley ordered the engineers to develop a Western Union telegraph system of stock quotes in real time. In 1864, fearing the laying of long underwater lines, Western Union offered to carry out laying of telegraph lines to Europe through the Russian Alaska under the narrow Bering Strait and then to Siberia with branching in the major cities of Europe. In 1879 Western Union left the telephone business after losing a lawsuit against Alexander Graham Bell - the patent holder on the phone. The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. 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.