The rack of gift cards near a supermarket checkout lane was Blackhawk Network's business. The Pleasanton, California company started inside the grocery chain Safeway and grew into the network that let stores sell cards for other brands, then moved the money between them. A shopper could buy a card for a restaurant, an app store or a phone plan while picking up milk. In 2013, Safeway took Blackhawk public on Nasdaq under the ticker HAWK.

Born in a Grocery Chain

Blackhawk began in 2001 as a Safeway project. The insight was that grocery stores had foot traffic and checkout space, and brands wanted to sell prepaid cards to the people walking past. Blackhawk built the system in the middle. It signed up the brands, stocked the racks across many retailers, and handled activation at the register so a card had value only after a customer paid for it. Each sale earned a fee, and the network grew with every new store.

A Hawk Goes Private

Blackhawk priced its IPO at $23 a share in April 2013, raising $230 million, with Safeway still holding most of the company. Over the next five years it added corporate rewards and incentive programs to its gift card business. In January 2018, Silver Lake and P2 Capital Partners agreed to buy Blackhawk for $45.25 a share in cash, about $3.5 billion including debt. The deal closed on June 15, 2018, and the stock left Nasdaq that day.

Cover: A Hawk Capturing a Crane in Flight, Torii Kiyomasu I. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a hawk seizing a crane in flight.