In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. Another invention of Western Union - time synchronization. Separation of the companies had two objectives: first, to give Western Union the opportunity to develop more intensively, and secondly, to help First Data to return to its original activity (in 1992 the company separated from the payment system of American Express as an independent financial services company). In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Western Union incomes for 2007 have made $4,9 billion US dollars, and the quantity of transactions has made 572 million. 1970 - a new service called In the 1910-1920 years. Western Union is actively engaged in researching, innovating in the field of data transmission.