In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. The project of congressmen involved the construction of lines with the length of two thousand miles in 10 years. Western Union handled the government task within 112 days. The secret of Sibley was simple: he used the tactics of the "Western Union". 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. Western Union offers one of the easiest ways for families and friends to send money and stay connected almost anywhere in the world. In 1995, First Financial Management was acquired by First Data Corp. (the deal amounted to $ 7 billion), and Western Union Financial Services became a subsidiary of First Data. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. 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.