In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. In the early forties of the 20th century, Western Union has used the first time a commercial intercity microwave transmission system. America was on the verge of civil war and needed a reliable connection between the North and South. On the telegraph market of the USA at this time were operated with six large companies: American Telegraph Company, New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph, Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company, and the brainchild of Sibley & Co. - The Western Union Telegraph. The presence of Western Union Gold Card at the client greatly simplifies the process of further processing of money transfers of and reduces the operation time for the sending of money, as the "Gold Card" is a carrier of the personal information about the client. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. In 1877, starting from September, New York City residents began to have the opportunity to check the time on clock with the "time ball", located on the roof of constructed in the same year a new corporate headquarters - Western Union Building. 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 October 1871 the company has implemented the world's first telegraph money order. After a century money transfers have become a major source of income for Western Union. In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.