ardtronics, one of the largest non-bank owners of ATMs in the United States, filed for an initial public offering of common stock on March 10, 2004. On June 3, the company announced plans to buy all of the assets of online discount brokerage firm and bank E*Trade Financial Corp.'s ATM business for $106 million in cash.

E*Trade Access, Inc. is the ATM deployer of E*Trade Financial. Cardtronics will acquire 13,100 of E*Trade's active ATMs and their related placement agreements; 2,300 of these are owned and 10,800 are managed.

E*Trade ATMs are located in all 50 states, with a strong penetration in the Northeast, especially in urban centers such as convenience stores.

With the E*Trade acquisition, Houston-based Cardtronics will have more than 25,000 ATMs under its control in all 50 states. The deal is Cardtronics' largest to date.

These days, ATM portfolios change hands almost as fast as chips in a casino, and Cardtronics has certainly been on an ATM buying spree. In 2001, the company acquired 878 ATMs; in 2002, it acquired 1,125 ATMs; and in 2003, it acquired 3,690 ATMs.

Collectively, these add up to eight ATM portfolios and include ATMs and contracts from American Express Co. (August 2003); ISO National Bank Equipment Corp. (June 2003); CenterCourt Cash, Inc. and XtraCash ATM, Inc.'s Winn Dixie locations (both in February 2003); and Diebold, Inc. (October 2002), among others.

During the three years ending Dec. 31, 2003, Cardtronics' ATM network grew from approximately 3,300 to more than 12,000 ATMs; this represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53.3%, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Founded in 1989, Cardtronics has a number of major retail and petroleum merchant customers such as A&P, Amerada Hess, Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, ConocoPhillips, Costco, Duane Reade, ExxonMobil, Rite Aid, SSP/Circle K, Sears, Sunoco, Uni-Marts, Walgreens and Winn-Dixie Stores.

E*Trade Financial is a family of companies that provide a range of financial services including brokerage, banking and lending for retail, corporate and institutional customers. E*Trade Securities LLC offers securities products and services, and E*Trade Bank offers bank and lending products and services.

"We continuously review all parts of the E*Trade Financial business to ensure all business initiatives are core to the company's long-term vision," said Mitchell H. Caplan, CEO of E*Trade Financial in a statement.

"While we believe that the ATM network is an important distribution channel for our customers, we have determined that operating an ATM network is not essential to providing this customer benefit."

E*Trade acquired what it named the E*Trade Access division in 2000 through the purchase of 9,000 ATMs from Card Capture Services.

In August 2001, E*Trade Financial moved its E*Trade Access division from Portland, Ore. to Arlington, Va., consolidating it with the operating center for E*Trade Bank, the Washington Business Journal reported.

In February 2003, E*Trade Financial bought about 4,000 ATM contracts from XtraCash, ATMMarketplace.com reported.

Under the terms of the sale of E*Trade Access to Cardtronics, E*Trade Financial will retain certain branding rights. E*Trade also said the sale should bring the company a pretax gain of about $55 million.

Cardtronics could not comment on the transaction—the company is in a quiet period right now because of its IPO plans. Documents filed with the SEC show an offering of common stock, with Cardtronics hoping to raise as much as $115 million.

The lead manager of the offering is Credit Suisse First Boston, and the co-managers are Bear Stearns & Co., Wachovia Securities and William Blair & Co. The company is seeking a NASDAQ listing and proposed CATM as its stock ticker symbol.