In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Another invention of Western Union - time synchronization. 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. July 3, 1884 the company's shares were included in the calculation base for the newly created stock index Dow Jones Transportation Average. Payment systems are one of basic elements of infrastructure of e-commerce. In 2007 the company made 167.7 million transactions on money transfers between individuals and 404.6 million transactions between physical and legal persons. Transaction with Fexco has allowed Western Union to control directly more than 10 thousand points of service, which belonged to Fexco in 7 European countries (Spain, UK, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Finland). In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.