Western Union

A Western Union telegram sent on September 7, 1896 to report on the positions of two comets.

A 12-year-old Western Union messenger boy in Tampa, Florida, 1911

In 1851, the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was organized in Rochester, New York, by Samuel L. Selden, Hiram Sibley, and others, with the goal of creating one great telegraph system with unified and efficient operations. Meanwhile, Ezra Cornell had bought back one of his bankrupt companies and renamed it the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company. Originally fierce competitors, by 1856[1] both groups were convinced that consolidation was their only alternative for progress. The merged company was named the Western Union Telegraph Company at Cornell's insistence, and Western Union was born.[8]

Western Union bought smaller companies rapidly, and by 1860 its lines reached from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, and from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. In 1861 it opened the first transcontinental telegraph. In 1865 it formed the Russian–American Telegraph in an attempt to link America to Europe, via Alaska, into Siberia, to Moscow (This project was abandoned in 1867.) The company had phenomenal growth during the next few years. Under the leadership of presidents Jeptha Wade and William Orton its capitalization rose from $385,700 in 1858 to $41 million in 1876. It was top-heavy with stock issues, and faced growing competition from several firms, especially the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company — itself taken over by financier Jay Gould in 1875.[9]^:196–201 In 1881 Gould took control of Western Union.[10][11]

Western Union introduced the first stock ticker in 1866, and a standardized time service in 1870. The next year, 1871, the company introduced its money transfer service, based on its extensive telegraph network. In 1879, Western Union left the telephone business, settling a patent lawsuit with Bell Telephone Company.[12][13] As the telephone replaced the telegraph, money transfer became its primary business.

When the Dow Jones Railroad Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of the original eleven companies to be included.[14] By 1900, Western Union operated a million miles of telegraph lines and two international undersea cables.[15]

Logo, 1969 to 1990

60 Hudson Street, Manhattan, was WU's headquarters in the early and middle 20th century

Western Union Telegraph storefront seen in the Chamber of Commerce Building in Toledo, Ohio, 1895

In 1913 AT&T, under indictment for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sold its shares in Western Union.[16]

The company continued to grow, acquiring more than 500 smaller competitors. Its monopoly power was almost complete in 1943 when it bought Postal Telegraph, Inc., its chief rival.

In 1914, Western Union offered the first charge card for consumers. In 1923 it introduced teletypewriters to link its branches. Singing telegrams followed in 1933, intercity fax in 1935, and commercial intercity microwave communications in 1943. In 1958, it began offering Telex service to customers in New York City.[17] In honor of Valentine's Day 1959, Western Union introduced the Candygram, a box of chocolates accompanying a telegram that was featured in a commercial with the rotund Don Wilson.[18] On the 1970s version of Let's Make a Deal, hosted by Monty Hall, Western Union Candygrams (with a cash message inside) were offered to contestants as a prize during a deal. In 1964, Western Union initiated a transcontinental microwave system to replace land lines.

During World War II, families with men in military service dreaded the arrival of a Western Union messenger, who could be carrying a death notification.

Advertisement for Western Union "Tourate" telegram service, 1939

Western Union became the first American telecommunications corporation to maintain its own fleet of geosynchronous communications satellites, starting in 1974. The fleet of satellites, called Westar, carried communications within the Western Union company for telegram and mailgram message data to Western Union bureaus nationwide. It also handled traffic for its Telex and TWX ("Telex II") services. The Westar satellites' transponders were also leased by other companies for relaying video, voice, data, and facsimile (fax) transmissions.

In 1963, Western Union organized its international cable system properties and its right-of-way for connecting international telegraph lines into a separate company called Western Union International (WUI), which it divested that year to American Securities. In 1967 WUI issued an IPO. In 1979 it was sold to Xerox for $207 million in stock. Xerox sold WUI in 1981 for $185 million in cash to MCI Communicationsm which renamed it MCI International and moved its headquarters from New York City to Rye Brook, New York.

In the 1970s, WUI installed and leased to the US Department of Defense (DOD) dedicated 50-Kbps high-speed telecommunications facilities between the continental US and Hawaii, Germany and the UK to provide a test bed for the DOD's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). This test bed provided ARPA with a proof of concept for the technology of packet switching which later became the Internet.

In 1976, Western Union partnered with E. F. Hutton & Co..

In 1981, Western Union purchased a 50% interest in Airfone. It sold Airfone to GTE in 1986 for $39 million in cash.[19]

Because of declining profits and mounting debts, Western Union began to divest itself of telecommunications-based assets in the early 1980s. Because of deregulation at the time, Western Union began sending money outside the country, re-inventing itself as "The fastest way to send money worldwide" and expanding its agent locations internationally.[20]

A WU Telegram, 1959. The message text is on a continuous paper strip cut and glued to the form.

In 1987, Investor Bennett S. LeBow acquired control of Western Union through an outside of chapter 11 process that was a complex leveraged recapitalization. The transaction was backed by a total of $900 million in high-yield bonds and preferred stock underwritten by Michael Milken's group at Drexel Burnham Lambert as part of an exchange offer. LeBow installed Robert J. Amman as President and CEO who led a complete strategic, operational and balance sheet restructuring of the company over the next six years.

Amman executed a strategy of redirecting Western Union from being an asset-based provider of communications services, with a money transfer business as a large but less important part of the business, into being a provider of consumer-based money transfer financial services. Thus, Amman ran the company as two separate companies. One business consisted of the money transfer business, which was funded and operated to take advantage of the significant growth opportunity. The second unit consisted of all the non-strategic communications assets such as the long-distance analog voice network, satellite business and undersea cable assets. In the 3-year period through 1990 Amman was supported by Robert A. Schriesheim, also installed by LeBow, as a special advisor who oversaw the divestiture of the four non-strategic telecommunications assets for about $280 million.

The official name of the corporation was changed to New Valley Corporation in 1991, just in time for that entity to seek bankruptcy protection as part of Amman's strategy to eliminate the overleveraged balance sheet while continuing to grow the money transfer business. The name change was used to shield the Western Union name from being dragged through the proceedings (and the resulting bad PR).[21] Under the day to day leadership of Amman and the backing of LeBow, the company's value increased dramatically through its years operating under chapter 11.

Following various restructurings that included negotiations with Carl Icahn who became a large bond holder, Amman engineered the sale of New Valley in a bankruptcy auction to First Financial Management Corporation in 1994 for $1.2 billion where he became vice chairman, and a year later merged with First Data Corporation in a $6 billion transaction. On January 26, 2006, First Data Corporation announced plans to spin off Western Union as an independent publicly-traded company. Western Union's focus will remain money transfers. The next day Western Union announced that it would cease offering telegram transmission and delivery,[22] the product most associated with the company throughout its history. This was not the original Western Union telegram service, but a new service of First Data under the Western Union banner; the original telegram service was sold off after New Valley Corporation's bankruptcy and now operates as iTelegram.

The spin off was completed September 29, 2006 and Western Union became an independent publicly traded company again.

Western Union telegrams were transmitted through a store and forward message switching system.[23] Early versions were manual telegraph systems. Later systems using teleprinters were semi-automatic, using punched paper tape to receive, store, and retransmit messages. Plan 55-A, Western Union's last paper tape based switching system (1948–1976), was fully automatic, with automatic routing.[24]

Western Union was a prime contractor in the Automatic Digital Network (AUTODIN) program. AUTODIN, a military application for communication, was first developed in the 1960s and became the precursor to the modern Internet in the 1990s. The Defense Message System (DMS) replaced AUTODIN in 2000.[25]

AUTODIN, originally named "ComLogNet", was a reliable service that operated at 99.99% availability, using mechanical punched card readers and tab machines to send and receive data over leased lines.[26] During the peak operation of AUTODIN, the US portion of the network handled 20 million messages a month. Western Union failed in its attempts to engineer a replacement (AUTODIN II), leading to the development of an acceptable packet-switched network by BBN (the developer of the ARPANET) which became the foundation of today's Internet. AUTODIN service ceased in 2000, years after it had become obsolete.[27]

A related innovation that came from AUTODIN was Western Union's computer based EasyLink service.[28] This system allowed one of the first marketable email systems for non-government users. The system allowed the same message to be sent simultaneously to multiple recipients via email, fax, mailgram, or telex services as well as allowing messages to be sent from the integrated formats. With the service, users could also perform research utilizing its InfoLink application. EasyLink was spun off as a separate company and is now part of OpenText.[29]

As of February 2006, the Western Union website showed this notice:

"Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative."[30]

This ended the era of telegrams which began in 1851 with the founding of the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, and which spanned 155 years of continuous service. Western Union reported that telegrams sent had fallen to a total of 20,000 a year, because of competition from other communication services such as email. Employees were informed of the decision in mid-January.[31]

Telegram service in the US continues to be available through iTelegram.[32]

In May 2009, Western Union announced its plan to acquire Canada-based Custom House from Peter Gustavson.[33] The deal closed in September 2009 for a purchase price of US$371 million.[34] This acquisition led the company to be re-branded as Western Union Business Solutions.[35] Custom House and its subsidiary XE.com were sold to Euronet Worldwide in 2015 and operate under its HiFX brand.

In January 2011, Western Union acquired Angelo Costa, a group active in money transfer and services to immigrants. Angelo Costa has a network of 7,500 points of sale throughout Europe. The agreement was signed for US$200 million.

In July 2011, Western Union acquired Travelex's Global Business Payments division for £606 million.[36]

In October 2011, Western Union completed the acquisition of Finint S.r.l., one of Western Union's leading money transfer network agents in Europe, with more than 10,000 subagent locations across Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[37]

In May 2015, rumors emerged over a proposed merger of Western Union and competitor MoneyGram, at a time when both companies’ revenue were declining.[38] Western Union denied this was the case.[39] In January 2017, MoneyGram was instead acquired unsuccessfully by Ant Financial, Alibaba’s financial technology firm, for $880 million.[40]

In November 2020, Western Union acquired 15% stake in the digital payment unit of Saudi Arabia's STC Group for $200 million.[41]

Western Union's website, westernunion.com, allows users to send and receive funds to others, pay bills, locate Western Union locations, track transfers, and to purchase Western Union NetSpend gift cards. The website also attempts to spread fraud awareness using videos, articles, and quizzes to do so.

As the Internet became an arena for commerce at the turn of the millennium, Western Union started its online services. BidPay was renamed "Western Union Auction Payments" in 2004 before being renamed back to BidPay. BidPay ceased operations on December 31, 2005, and was purchased for US$1.8 million in March 2006 by CyberSource Corp. who announced their intention to re-launch BidPay. BidPay was later discontinued by CyberSource effective December 31, 2007.[42]

In October 2007, Western Union announced plans to introduce a mobile money-transfer service with the GSM Association, a global trade association representing more than 700 mobile operators in 218 countries and covering 2.5 billion mobile subscribers.

The proliferation of mobile phones in developed and developing economies provides a widely accessible consumer device capable of delivering mobile financial services ranging from text notifications associated with Western Union cash delivery services to phone-based remittance options. Western Union's mobile money transfer service offering will connect its core money-transfer platform to m-bank or m-wallet platforms provided by mobile operators and/or locally regulated financial institutions.

The company launched the Western Union Connect service in October 2015, following partnership agreements with major instant messaging apps WeChat and Viber.[43][44] The partnership allows users of WeChat to send up to $100 to China, the US and 200 other countries,[44] while Viber users can send up to $100 for $3.99 plus exchange rate fees, with that fixed fee increasing the more money is sent up a limit of $499.[43]

Money can be sent online or in person at Western Union agent locations. Cash can be collected in person at any other Western Union agent location worldwide by providing the 10-digit MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number) and identification. In some cases, a secret question and answer can be used instead of identification.

WU phone parlors near Times Square, 2008

Along with satellite telecommunications, Western Union was also active in other forms of telecommunication services:

• Common carrier terrestrial microwave networks
• Business communications networks such as Telex and TWX, which was acquired from AT&T Corporation and renamed Telex II by Western Union
• Landline-based leased voice and data communication circuits
• Long distance telephone service
• Airfone air-ground radiotelephone service from 1981 to 1986
• Cellular phone service for a short time in the early 1980s (the phones were made by two-way radio manufacturer E. F. Johnson Company)

Most of these services were discontinued by Western Union in the late 1980s due to a lack of profitability, with the company's divisions providing said services being divested and sold to other companies, such as the 1988 sale of WU's satellite fleet and services to Hughes Space and Communications, and the sale of WU's Airfone service to GTE in 1986.

The Central Bank of Ireland reprimanded and fined Western Union €1.75m in May 2015 because of failures in anti money laundering practices which could have left the firm's payment services open to being used for money laundering and/or terrorist financing saying that they were concerned that Western Union "failed to have in place sufficiently robust systems and procedures to train agents, to monitor and identify suspicious activity in respect of smaller transactions, and to maintain appropriate records" and "the splitting of payments into many separate smaller payments is a common method used to launder money. Similarly, terrorist financing is often carried out by small payment transfers."[52][53]

Western Union agents also allowed Chinese immigrants to the US to use the service to send hundreds of millions of dollars, by sending the amounts in smaller increments to avoid transfer reporting requirements, to pay human smugglers.[51]

Western Union has begun blocking transactions based on suspicion of terrorist connections, as a part of the company's involvement with the War on Terror.