In February 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Fexco to acquire 100% of its shares for $ 159.9 million. In the Western Union in the 30s of the 20th century worked 14 thousand couriers delivering telegrams. In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. Each money transfer is protected with control number, that allows you to track and to ensure prompt payment of money specified by you person. In April 1851 companions registered in Albany New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company (NYMVPTC), which included founded two years before New York State Printing Telegraph Company. 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 for more than 130 years provides money transfer services to its customers.