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DENVER, CO., July 12, 2006 – First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC), a global leader in electronic commerce payments services with revenue of more than $10 billion, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Peace Software, a leading Customer Information System (CIS) product company that develops advanced software for managing utility billing and customer care.

Peace has developed a feature-rich, scalable off-the-shelf CIS software product, Peace™, which has been installed and is operating at major utilities in 35 regulated and competitive electricity, gas and water markets around the world.

"The acquisition of Peace is the cornerstone of First Data's strategy to provide a comprehensive, integrated, meter-to-cash solution to the global utilities market," said David Bailis, executive vice president, First Data Corp. "We determined that Peace is the most advanced CIS product in the market today, and we plan to continue to develop and strengthen the Peace line of software products in the years to come."

"Being in the First Data family will enable Peace to evolve our software products at a faster pace using the latest technologies and industry best practices," said Sebastian J. Gunningham, chief executive officer, Peace Software. "In addition, First Data's comprehensive range of outsourcing, electronic commerce and payment services will provide utilities more options to lower their overall cost. The coupling of our world-class CIS and industry knowledge with First Data's demonstrated expertise in secure, high-volume, high-value transaction processing and data center management will result in a compelling value proposition to the worldwide utilities market."

The transaction remains subject to certain legal and regulatory approvals. Subject to these approvals, First Data anticipates closing the transaction in the third quarter of 2006. Financial terms were not disclosed.

About First Data
First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) is a leading provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions for businesses and consumers worldwide. Serving 4.6 million merchant locations, 1,600 card issuers and millions of consumers, First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses around the world to buy goods and services using virtually any form of payment. The company's portfolio of services and solutions includes credit, debit, private-label, gift and other prepaid card issuing and merchant transaction processing services; money transfer services; money orders; fraud protection and authentication solutions; check guarantee and verification services through TeleCheck; as well as Internet commerce and mobile solutions. Western Union, together with its affiliates Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, are leaders in global money transfer, providing people with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send money around the world, pay bills and purchase money orders through a network of over 270,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories. The company's STAR Network offers PIN-secured debit acceptance at 1.9 million ATM and retail locations. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.

About Peace Software
Peace is the leading utility CIS software developer. Peace™, the company's flagship software product, is installed at major utilities in 35 regulated and competitive energy markets for billing and customer relationship management of millions of electricity, gas and water customers. Peace has clients in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, ranging from entrepreneurial new entrant energy retailers to the largest dual-fuel utilities with many millions of consumers and multiple market operations. For more information, visit www.peace.com.

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