Fidelity financial company merges with Cincinnati firm

Fidelity National Information Services is buying Worldpay, based in Cincinnati, for about $35 billion to combine forces as financial transactions increasingly move online.

Fidelity, or FIS as it is known, is a more traditional paymentservice provider, supporting such practices as bank transactions. Worldpay processes more than 40 billion transactions a year and supports more than 300 payment types across more than 120 currencies.

Combined, Worldpay and FIS would have had 2018 revenue of $12.3 billion. The deal represents the biggest acquisition for FIS since it spent more than $5 billion for Sungard in 2015.

Worldpay originally was a British company that was acquired less than two years ago by Vantiv, based in Cincinnati. Vantiv then took on the Worldpay name. The combined company will be based in Jacksonville, Florida, where FIS is headquartered.

Columbus construction business accused of not finishing projects

A construction firm has been accused of defaulting on at least three uncompleted, taxpayerfunded projects in Ohio.

The Chillicothe Gazette reports that Columbus-based Palmetto Construction quit multimillion-dollar projects, including Ross County’s jail renovation and construction of a Hocking Hills State Park visitors’ center, as well as a firehouse in Franklin County’s Truro Township.

Palmetto was paid more than $1 million for the jail and fire station projects, and nearly $3 million on the park project.

Ross County officials are waiting to see what a bond company does about the jail.

The newspaper reports problems also were encountered on a veterinary lab project at Ohio State University and a Columbus City Schools enrollment-center renovation.

A phone mailbox at Palmetto’s headquarters isn’t accepting messages.

America’s Best optical adds fifth Columbus store

America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses has opened another location in central Ohio, adding more competition locally in the low-price segment of the optical retail industry.

The new location, at 4172 Buckeye Parkway in Grove City’s Parkway Centre East, joins locations at Easton Market, Westpointe Plaza, Reynoldsburg and Polaris.

America’s Best offers discount eye exams, eyeglasses and contact lenses. The stores provide free eye exams by an optometrist with two pairs of eyeglasses for $69.95.

The company is part of National Vision, which has more than 1,000 optical retail stores in 44 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.