St. Paul, Minn. - Deluxe Corporation announced today that it has acquired all the outstanding shares of Custom Direct, Inc. ("Custom Direct"), a Joppa, Maryland based leading provider of direct-to-consumer checks. Deluxe paid $98 million in cash of which approximately $86 million was used to extinguish Custom Direct's outstanding debt. The acquisition was funded with a draw on the Company's credit facility.

"The acquisition of Custom Direct creates a tremendous opportunity to further execute on a key core focus area of our strategy, optimizing the cash flow in our direct-to-consumer channel," said Lee Schram, chief executive officer of Deluxe. "We expect the transaction will offer significant value to shareholders as we enhance the revenue and cost efficiencies in this profitable channel."

During the remainder of 2010, the acquisition is expected to generate approximately $60 million in revenue and over $15 million of additional operating cash flow. The acquisition is also expected to be neutral to earnings per share after recording approximately $2 million in transaction-related costs in 2010, and be accretive to EPS by over $0.10 in 2011. Included in these estimates are revenue synergies from improvements to call center scripting and cost reductions from leveraging procurement for reduced delivery and media spend, increased manufacturing efficiencies and SG&A cost reductions. Also, the company stated that it has no immediate plans to close any facilities as a result of the acquisition.