Wincor Nixdorf

Wincor Nixdorf

Company type	Public (until 2016)
Industry	Financial technology, Retail technology
Founded	1952
Founder	Heinz Nixdorf
Defunct	15 August 2016
Fate	Merged with Diebold Inc. to form Diebold Nixdorf
Headquarters	Paderborn , Germany
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Eckard Heidloff (CEO from 2006)
Products	ATMs, retail banking equipment, lottery and postal terminals, software solutions, services for financial and commercial markets
Number of employees	approx. 6,300 (2005)

Wincor Nixdorf was a German enterprise dedicated to providing hardware, software, and services tailored for retail and retail banking sectors. Its core activities included manufacturing, selling, installing, and maintaining self-service transaction devices such as ATMs, along with equipment for retail banking, lottery, and postal terminals. Additionally, it offered software solutions and services catering to financial and commercial markets worldwide.

Following its initial public offering in May 2004, private equity investors KKR and Goldman Sachs exited their holdings. Between 2004 and 2005, KKR generated more than €685 million through dividends and the disposal of shares. Throughout this period, the company's employee base expanded significantly from 3,400 to approximately 6,300 personnel.

In October 2015, Wincor Nixdorf separated its cashless Payments division into a new entity named AEVI. Subsequently, on August 15, 2016, it merged with Diebold Inc. to establish Diebold Nixdorf, becoming a leading global provider of technology and services within the banking and retail industries.

History

The origins of the company trace back to 1952 when Heinz Nixdorf founded Nixdorf Computer. This firm was acquired by Siemens AG in 1990 and rebranded as Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme. In 1998, the focus shifted towards retail and banking products under the name Siemens Nixdorf Retail and Banking Systems GmbH. Following a management buyout led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners on October 1, 1999, the company adopted the name Wincor Nixdorf. Its public listing occurred on May 19, 2004. On November 8, 2006, CEO Karl-Heinz Stiller stepped down and was replaced by Eckard Heidloff.

IBM

After the dissolution of the InterBold alliance in 1997, IBM entered into a redistribution agreement with Wincor Nixdorf to market and service its products across various countries in the Americas.

Security issue

In July 2016, a security breach affected at least 34 Wincor Nixdorf ATMs deployed at Taiwan's First Commercial Bank. Hackers illicitly withdrew funds exceeding 70 million New Taiwan dollars (about 2 million USD). This cyberattack involved an international group exploiting mobile devices rather than bank cards to initiate transactions. Wincor Nixdorf responded by dispatching cybersecurity specialists to conduct an investigation. Given that roughly one thousand comparable ATMs were operational in Taiwan at that time, an urgent assessment of vulnerabilities was launched.

By July 17, law enforcement authorities declared the incident resolved, having identified a hacking collective of sixteen individuals from Russia, Romania, and Latvia.