Blackhawk Network Acquires Extrameasures

PLEASANTON, Calif., March 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Network, a leading prepaid and payments network, announced today that it has acquired extrameasures, a prepaid consumer promotions and incentives company. Through its customized rebate programs, extrameasures offers Visa prepaid cards and private label merchant-specific reward and gift cards with a proprietary platform to help businesses drive consumer acquisition, engagement and loyalty. The acquisition will broaden the reach of Blackhawk's already extensive incentive and engagement business.

"Extrameasures' corporate incentive programs are complementary to our incentives portfolio and will enhance Blackhawk's leadership position in both the corporate and the consumer promotions markets," said Talbott Roche, Blackhawk Network's CEO and president. "Additionally, the extrameasures acquisition furthers our ability to provide innovative prepaid products, solutions and technology to meet the needs of corporations who want to incent and reward their consumers."

In 2015, Blackhawk launched a new incentives division, Blackhawk Engagement Solutions, which is a leading global provider of customized incentive and engagement solutions for consumer promotions, employee rewards and recognition, and indirect sales channels. This division is the result of Blackhawk's acquisitions of incentives providers: Parago, InteliSpend, CardLab and Incentec Solutions. Last year, Blackhawk also acquired Achievers, a leading provider of employee recognition and rewards solutions designed to help companies increase employee engagement.

The acquisition of extrameasures will enhance the existing client portfolio of Blackhawk's incentive business and provide opportunities for new product distribution at retail.

"We are excited to be a part of Blackhawk," said Jan Steinert, CEO of extrameasures. "By joining our customized reward, rebate and prepaid programs with Blackhawk's industry leading incentive solutions and capabilities for scale and scope, we are confident that our customers and partners will benefit greatly."

Clear Capital Advisors served as exclusive financial advisor to 888.ExtraMoney.com LLC (extrameasures) in the transaction.

About Blackhawk Network
Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK) is a leading prepaid and payments global company, which supports the program management and distribution of gift cards, prepaid telecom products and financial service products in a number of different retail, digital and incentive channels. Blackhawk's digital platform supports prepaid across a network of digital distribution partners including retailers, financial service providers, and mobile wallets. For more information, please visit www.blackhawknetwork.com or product websites Cardpool, Gift Card Lab, Gift Card Mall, GiftCards.com and OmniCard.

About extrameasures
Extrameasures is a leading provider of promotional and incentive prepaid card programs, both open and closed loop. Over the past 20 years, extrameasures has pioneered new and innovative features enhancing their prepaid card offering to include first-to-market card features, unparalleled client reporting, and cutting edge fraud monitoring. It's business to business and consumer private label products have provided Fortune 100 companies with effective programs to accomplish their customer acquisition and retention goals.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to the demand for gift cards in the ecommerce market, the success of integrating the digital commerce platform acquired from extrameasures onto Blackhawk's existing platforms and the results from the use of the acquired distribution capabilities. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of words such as, but not limited to, "anticipate," "believe," "can," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "seek," "should," "target," "will," "would" and similar expressions or variations intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Blackhawk's management based on information currently available to management. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including Blackhawk's ability to successfully integrate the acquired business and products; costs related to the acquisition; whether demand for gift card ecommerce market grows as anticipated; the competitive environment in the industry and competitive response to the acquisition; general market and business conditions; and the accounting impact of the acquisition. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified in the "Risk Factors" section in Blackhawk's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Furthermore, such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, Blackhawk undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

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SOURCE Blackhawk Network

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