The Western Union Company is an American financial services and communications company. Its headquarters are in Meridian, Colorado, although the adjoining Englewood postings are used in the mailing address. Until the end of service in 2006, Western Union was the most famous US company in the telegram exchange business.
Western Union has several divisions, with products such as person-to-person money transfers, money orders, business payments, and commercial services. They offer standard "Cablegrams", as well as more cheerful products like Candygram, Dollygrams, and Melodygrams.
Western Union, as an industrial monopoly, dominated the telegraph industry in the late 19th century. It was the first communications empire and set the pattern for American-style communications business as it is known today.
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In 1851, The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Company was held in Rochester, New York by Samuel L. Selden, Hiram Sibley, and others, with the goal of creating a large, unified telegraph system and operations that is efficient. Meanwhile, Ezra Cornell has bought back one of its bankrupt companies and renamed it New York & amp; Company Western Union Telegraph. Initially the fierce competitors, in 1856 both groups were finally convinced that consolidation was their only alternative to progress. The joint company was named Western Union Telegraph Company at Cornell's insistence, and Western Union was born.
Western Union bought small companies quickly, and by 1860 the lines had reached from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, and from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. In 1861, he opened the first continental telegraph. In 1865 formed the Russian-American Telegraph in an attempt to connect America to Europe, via Alaska, to Siberia, to Moscow (The project was abandoned in 1867). The company enjoys phenomenal growth over the next few years. Under the leadership of the presidents Jeptha Wade and William Orton, capitalization increased from $ 385,700 in 1858 to $ 41 million in 1876. But this is very heavy with stock issues, and faces increasingly fierce competition from some companies, notably the Atlantic and Telegraph Companies Pacific - itself was taken over by financier Jay Gould in 1875. In 1881 Gould took over Western Union.
It introduced the first stock ticker in 1866, and a standard time service in 1870. The following year, 1871, the company introduced its money transfer service, based on its extensive telegraph network. In 1879, Western Union abandoned the telephone business, settling a patent suit with Bell Telephone Company. When the phone replaces the telegraph, money transfers will be the main business.
When the Dow Jones Transportation Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of eleven all-American companies tracked.
In 1900, Western Union operated a million miles of telegraph lines and two submarine cables internationally.
20th century
In 1909 AT & amp; T, under the Sherman Act indictments, sold its shares in Western Union due to the threat of antitrust action.
The company continues to grow, gaining over 500 smaller competitors. The monopoly power was almost completed in 1943 when it bought Postal Telegraph, Inc., its main rival.
In 1914, Western Union offered the first charge card to the consumer; in 1923 he introduced teletypewriters to join his branches. Singing telegram followed in 1933, an intercity fax in 1935, and microwave communications between commercial cities in 1943. In 1958, he began offering Telex services to customers in New York City. In honor of Valentine's Day 1959, Western Union introduced Candygram, a box of chocolates that accompanied a telegram featured in an ad with a dilapidated Don Wilson. In the 1970s version of Let's Make A Deal, organized by Monty Hall, Western Union Candygrams (with cash messages in it) was offered to the contestants as a reward during the deal. In 1964, Western Union initiated a transcontinental microwave system to replace the landline.
During World War II, families with boys in military service were afraid of Western Union "boys with bicycles" to arrive at their homes by telegram from the War Department or the Department of the Navy. Message begins: Secretary of War (for soldiers and aviators) or Secretary of the Navy (for sailors and marines), regrets to inform you that [name, rank and serial number of men in military service] are killed in action (or lost in action).
Western Union became the first American telecommunications company to maintain its own geosynchronous communication satellite fleet, starting in 1974. The satellite fleet, called Westar, carries communications in Western Union companies for telegram and mailgram messaging to Western Union bureaus across the country. It also handles traffic for Telex and TWX services (Telex II). Westar transponder satellites are also hired by other companies to transmit video, voice, data, and facsimile (fax) transmissions.
In 1963, Western Union regulated the property of its international cable system and its right to connect the international telegraph line to a separate company called Western Union International (WUI) divested that year to American Securities. In 1983, American Securities sold WUI to MCI Communications which renamed it MCI International and moved its headquarters from New York City to Rye Brook, New York.
In the 1970s, WUI was installed and leased to the US Department of Defense (DOD) which dedicates 50 Kbps high-speed telecommunication facilities between the US and Hawaii, Germany and the UK to provide test beds for the DOD Project Research Agency (ARPA). This test test provides ARPA with proof of concept for packet switching technology which later became the Internet.
In 1976, Western Union partnered with E. F. Hutton & amp; Together..
In 1981, Western Union bought a fifty percent interest in Airfone. It sold Airfone to GTE in 1986 for $ 39 million in cash.
Due to declining profits and rising debt, Western Union is slowly beginning to break away from telecom-based assets that began in the early 1980s. Due to deregulation at the time, Western Union began to send money abroad, reinventing itself as "The fastest way to send money around the world" and expand the location of its agents internationally.
In 1987, Investor Bennett S. LeBow acquired Western Union controls through an outside section of Chapter 11 process which is a complex leverage recapitalization. The transaction is backed by a total of $ 900 million in high yield bonds and preferred stocks borne by Michael Milken's group at Drexel Burnham Lambert as part of an exchange offer. LeBow installed Robert J. Amman as President and CEO leading a comprehensive corporate, operational and balance sheet restructuring for the next 6 years.
Mr. Amman operates a strategy of diverting Western Union from being an asset-based communications service provider, with a money transfer business as a large but less important part of business, becoming a consumer money-based financial services provider. Thus, Mr. Amman runs the company as two separate companies. A business consists of a money transfer business, which is funded and operated to take advantage of significant growth opportunities. The second unit consists of all non-strategic communications assets such as remote analog voice networks, satellite business and submarine cable assets. In the period of 3 years to 1990, Mr. Amman supported by Robert A. Schriesheim, also installed by Mr. LeBow, as a special adviser overseeing the release of four non-strategic telecommunications assets valued at approximately $ 280 million.
The company's official name was changed to New Valley Corporation in 1991, just in time for the entity to seek bankruptcy protection as part of Mr. Amman to eliminate excessive balance sheets while continuing to grow money remittance business. The name change was taken to protect the Western Union name from being dragged through the process (and the bad PR that will cause it). Under the daily leadership of Robert J. Amman and LeBow's support, company value increased dramatically during the years of operation under chapter 11.
After various restructuring which included negotiations with Carl Icahn who holds large bonds, Mr. Amman engineered the sale of New Valley at a $ 1 billion bankruptcy auction to First Financial Management Corporation in 1994 where he became vice chairman, and a year later joined First Data Corporation in a $ 6 billion deal. On January 26, 2006, First Data Corporation announced plans to confuse Western Union as a publicly traded independent company. Western Union focus will still transfer money. The next day, Western Union announced that it would stop offering telegram transmissions and shipments, the products most associated with the company throughout its history. However, this is not a genuine Western Union telegram service, but a new service from First Data under the banner of Western Union; the original telegram service was sold after the bankruptcy of New Valley Corporation and now operates as iTelegram.
Spin off finished September 29, 2006 and Western Union became an independent, public company again.
Involvement in initial computer network
Western Union telegram is transmitted through store and forward message redirection system. The earliest version was a manual telegraph system. Then the system uses semi-automated teleprinters, using punched paper tape to receive, store, and re-send messages. Planned 55-A, the last ribbon transferring system from Western Union (1948-1976), fully automated, with automatic routing.
Western Union is the prime contractor in the Automatic Digital Network (AUTODIN) program. AUTODIN, a military application for communication, was first developed in the 1960s and pioneered the modern Internet in the 1990s. Defense Message System (DMS) replaced AUTODIN in 2000.
AUTODIN, originally called "ComLogNet", is a very reliable service that operates on 99.99% availability, using a mechanical card reader and a tabbed machine to send and receive data through leased lines. During AUTODIN's peak operation, the United States part of the network handles twenty million messages per month. Western Union failed in its attempt to engineer replacements (AUTODIN II), leading to the development of an acceptable packet-switched network by BBN (the ARPANET developer) that is the foundation of the Internet today. The AUTODIN service ceased in 2000, many years after it became obsolete.
The related innovations coming from AUTODIN are Western Union's computer-based EasyLink service. This system allows one of the first email systems that can be marketed to non-governmental users. In addition, the system allows the same message to be sent simultaneously to multiple recipients via email, fax, mail, or telex service and allows messages to be sent from an integrated format. With this service, users can also conduct research using its InfoLink application. EasyLink Services International Corporation is now a separate company.
End of telegram
In February 2006, the Western Union website showed this notice:
"Effective 2006-01-27, Western Union will suspend all Telegram and Commercial Message Service services We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we thank you for your loyal support If you have any questions or concerns please contact representative customer service. "
It ended the telegram era that began in 1851 with the founding of New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, and which spanned 155 years of continuous service. Western Union reports that telegram sent has fallen to a total of 20,000 per year, due to competition from other communication services such as email. Employees were notified of the decision in mid-January.
Telegram services in the United States continue to be available through iTelegram.
Acquisitions
In May 2009, Western Union announced its intention to acquire a Canadian-based Custom House from Peter Gustavson. The deal closed in September 2009, with Western Union buying Custom House for US $ 371 million. This acquisition caused the company to be re-branded as a Western Union Business Solution. Custom House and its subsidiaries XE.com are sold to Euronet Worldwide in 2015 and operate under its HiFX brand.
In January 2011, Western Union acquired 100% Angelo Costa, a group that is active in money transfers and services to immigrants. Angelo Costa has a network of 7,500 sales places in various European countries. The agreement was signed for US $ 200 million.
In July 2011, Western Union acquired Travelex Global Payments division for  £ 606 million.
In October 2011, Western Union completed the acquisition of Finint S.r.l., one of Europe's leading money transfer network agents from Western Union, counting over 10,000 sub-agency locations across Italy, Spain and the UK.
In May 2015, rumors surfaced about the merger of Western Union's proposals and its closest competitor, MoneyGram, as the earnings of both companies declined. However, Western Union denied this was the case. In January 2017, MoneyGram was acquired by Ant Financial, Alibaba's financial technology company, for $ 880 million.
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Online
The Western Union website, westernunion.com , allows users to send and receive funds to others, pay bills, locate Western Union, track transfers, and purchase Western Union NetSpend cards. The website also tries to spread awareness of fraud using videos, articles, and quizzes to do so.
As of September 2017, the domain westernunion.com is ranked globally as 4,319 th most visited websites, according to Alexa Internet.
BidPay
When the internet became a trading arena at the turn of the millennium, Western Union started its online service. BidPay was renamed "Western Union Auction Payment" in 2004 before being renamed 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 relaunch BidPay. BidPay was later terminated by CyberSource effective December 31, 2007.
Western Union Mobile
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 cellular subscribers.
The expansion of mobile phones in developed and developing countries provides a widely accessible consumer device capable of delivering mobile financial services ranging from text notices related to Western Union remittance services to phone-based remittance options. Offers Western Union money transfer service will connect the core money transfer platform to m-bank or m-wallet platform provided by locally managed mobile operators and/or financial institutions.
Western Union Connect
The company launched the Western Union Connect service in October 2015, following a partnership agreement with WeChat and Viber's main instant messaging app. This partnership allows WeChat users to send up to $ 100 to China, US, and 200 other countries, while Viber users can send up to $ 100 for $ 3.99 plus exchange rate fees, with a fixed fee that increases more money sent to the limit $ 499.
Sending and receiving funds
To send funds, the sender goes to the Western Union office and provides funds (plus fees) for "Next Day" or "Money in Minutes" service. The sender provides its name and address, the recipient's name, and the specified payment destination. Western Union then assigns the sender a 10-Money Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN) that the sender must provide to the recipient. The recipient then proceeds to the Western Union agent office at the designated payment location, presents the 10 digit MTCN, and photo ID. The money is then paid to the recipient. In some locations, if the recipient does not have an identification document, the sender and recipient can set a pre-set password. Funds are paid in cash, even if payment exceeds the local maximum or cash in hand, checks are issued. Alternatively, the sender may forward funds to the recipient using the Western Union website or by phone. In some countries, the recipient does not require an MTCN number if someone has sufficient identification.
Transfer fee
Fees vary by location of the sender and receiver, the type of transfer, and whether the money is sent from the counter location or by the website.
Past Services
Along with satellite telecommunications, Western Union is also active in the form of other telecommunication services:
- Common terrestrial microwave network
- Business communication networks such as Telex and TWX, obtained from AT & T Corporation and renamed Telex II by Western Union
- Ground-based voice data and data communications circuits
- Long distance phone service
- Air-ground radio telephone service from 1981 to 1986
- Mobile phone service for a very short time in the early 1980s (phone 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 lack of profitability, with divisions of companies providing such services divested and sold to other companies, such as sales of 1988 satellite fleet and WU services to Hughes Space and Communications, and sales of Airfone services WU to GTE in 1986.
Sponsors
Western Union was the main sponsor of the Sydney Roosters NRL team from 2002-2003. The company still sponsors the team, but not as a shirt sponsor. Worldwide, Western Union sponsors community events that help support diaspora communities using global Money Transfer services. They also sponsor many WWE and WCW pay-per-click events such as No Way Out 1998 and Slamboree 2000. They sponsor the UEFA Europa League from 2012 to 2015.
The First Data Western Union Foundation donates money for charitable causes around the world. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Foundation donated US $ 1,000,000 for relief efforts.
The Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association announced that Western Union will sponsor their jersey for the 2017-18 NBA Season.
Liverpool FC announced on 9 August 2017 that Western Union will be their first arm sponsor, from the start of the 2017-18 season. They signed a £ 25 million deal for 5 years as a sponsor of Liverpool's arms.
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Industrial fraud and money laundering
Western Union advises its customers not to send money to someone they have never met directly. Despite efforts in raising customer awareness on this issue, Western Union is used for internet fraud by scammers.
Western Union has been requested to keep records of payment locations from individuals who may launder money, although this information may be obtained only through the use of a subpoena. Therefore, advanced fraudsters and charlatans continue to receive funds through Western Union in the belief that the money lost to overseas scammers is almost always irreversible. For this reason, it is banned as a payment medium through eBay, and discouraged on other online auction sites.
Western Union admitted to allowing wire fraud in January 2017 and agreed to pay $ 586 million, for turning a blind eye when criminals use their services for advance fraud. Scammers involved in various advance cost scams 419 include offering fake job offers and lottery prizes, can process transactions using Western Union money transfers, especially by giving agents a share of their fraudulent revenue. Western Union failed to investigate hundreds of thousands of complaints filed by victims.
Money laundering and terrorist financing
The Irish Central Bank reprimanded and fined Western Union EUR1.75m in May 2015 due to a failure in anti money laundering practices that could leave the company's pay service open for use for money laundering and/or terrorist financing saying that they feared that Western Union "failed to implement the system and procedures strong enough to train agents, monitor and identify suspicious activities related to smaller transactions, and maintain appropriate records "and" separation of payments into many separate small payments are common methods Also used to launder money.Similarly, terrorists are often made with small payment transfers. "
Western Union agents also allow Chinese immigrants to use this service to send hundreds of millions of dollars, by sending smaller amounts in order to avoid transfer reporting requirements, to pay for people smugglers.
Connection to military intelligence
There are several accusations in the book, "One Percent Doctrine: The Deepest Pursuit of America Into Its Enemies Since 9/11" that Western Union provides US military intelligence with personal information.
Blocked deals
Western Union has begun blocking transactions based on suspicion of terrorist connections, as part of its engagement with the War on Terror. At this time, transfers sent from the Western Union website require a confirmation of the sender's identity phone. Sometimes, the transfer will fail and customer service informs the sender that the transaction "does not meet our requirements". If details are requested, no information will be given other than the fact that their disclosure is prohibited. Many customers have reported this issue.
Anti-competitive behavior
Western Union has been accused of being involved in anti-competitive behavior in Africa as a result of the lack of competition on the continent. According to a report by the Overseas Development Institute, this allows Western Union to artificially inflate the costs for money transfers, charging 8% so-called "African loads" consistently "applied across countries regardless of market size, cost or market risk rules." However, the cost may be as high as 10% or more, depending on the region. Africa remittance market remains the most expensive in the world, and the region is expected to incur excess costs of $ 1.4 billion to $ 2.3 billion per year as a result of high remittance costs.
The Company has also been criticized for the use of exclusivity agreements with banks in countries receiving remittances, limiting competition and harming consumers, by requiring consumers to conduct transactions through nominated banks. It also allows for the imposition of above-average transaction fees.
In February 2016, Western Union was questioned by EU antitrust regulators over its agent network to establish whether companies colluded with banks to encourage smaller rivals from the money transfer market.
See also
- 60 Hudson Street - Former headquarters
- 92 Code
- Pangram - Used by WU to test the teleprinter.
- Pennsylvania v. New York - Question before US Supreme Court: when Western Union Money orders should escalate to the state if not completely redeemed, what country will get the money?
- Western Union , 1939 schooner hired by Western Union Telegraph Company, used in the film as a slave ship La Amistad
- Western Union Connection
- Western Union Telegraph Building - Former Head Office
Alternate providers
- CurrencyFair
- MoneyGram
- OFX ​​â € <â € <(company)
- Financial Services Ria
- Xoom Corporation
References
Further reading
- Wolff, Joshua D., Western Union and Creation of American Corporate Order, 1845-1893. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
External links
- Official website
- Telegram for America , an industrial film showing Western Union telegram handling (1956)
- Western Union Telegram Collection at Mississippi University Library
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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