ISD Corporation

In the world of retail, the moment of payment is everything. For decades, a company called ISD Corporation specialized in the complex software that makes that moment seamless. Founded in the early 1980s, ISD built a business on providing payment management software for merchants. Their core product was a suite that allowed retailers to manage and route all kinds of electronic transactions from their point-of-sale systems to various third-party processors for approval and settlement. Think of them as a universal translator for payments. ISD's software could handle almost any electronic payment type and was integrated with dozens of different processors. This gave retailers crucial flexibility and helped them minimize transaction costs. By focusing squarely on this niche, ISD grew its customer base to include over 140 retailers in the U.S. and Canada, becoming a key, if quiet, player in the payments ecosystem. The company's journey reached its logical conclusion in March 2011. ACI Worldwide, a major international provider of payment systems, announced it was acquiring ISD Corporation. For ACI, the acquisition was a strategic move to broaden its functionality for retailers and solidify its position in the market. The deal integrated ISD's in-store solutions with ACI's broader retail commerce server, creating a more comprehensive offering for merchants that could lower costs and reduce the complexities of PCI compliance.