Financier Capital One is in talks to buy Discover Financial Services in a deal that would combine two of the largest U.S. credit card companies, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
The people, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are confidential, said the deal is not yet final and could be announced as early as this week. The price could not be immediately confirmed, but Discover Financial Services was estimated to be worth about $28 billion as of Friday's market close. Capital One was valued at about $52 billion.
Capital One and Discover did not respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg earlier reported on the potential acquisition.
Acquiring Discover will give Capital One access to a new credit card network of approximately 305 million cardholders. His four major networks in this country are American Express, Mastercard, Visa, and Discover, but the number of networks is much smaller compared to competitors such as Visa and Mastercard.
In June, Capital One acquired Velocity Black, a digital concierge company that provides travel, entertainment, shopping and dining services to consumers.
Discover is emerging from turbulent times. The company's former CEO, Roger Hochschild, resigned in August amid a regulatory review of misclassified credit accounts. The company announced in October that it was taking steps to improve its corporate governance and announced a new CEO, Michael G. Rose, in December. The company's profit for the fourth quarter of 2023 decreased by 62% compared to the same period last year.
Rob Copeland Contributed to the report.
