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". 1998 - the number of points of money transfers worldwide reached 50,000. The network of money transfers of Western Union is the world's largest. 1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. You do not need to open a bank account, so you can send or receive money in any of the 170 000 service points of Western Union around the world. In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". In 1879 Western Union left the telephone business after losing a lawsuit against Alexander Graham Bell - the patent holder on the phone. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.