GAAP cash from operations during the quarter was $96 million and free cash flow was $69 million. Compared to prior year, the decline in free cash flow was driven by lower net income and higher capital expenditures, partly offset by higher reserve account deposits.

During the quarter, the Company reduced debt by $175 million, paid $9 million in dividends to its common shareholders and repurchased $5 million of its shares.

Debt and Credit Facility Management

In September 2019, the Company repaid the balance of its $200 million September 2020 term loan. In November 2019, the Company secured a new five-year Term Loan A for $400 million and replaced its revolving credit facility. The new revolving credit facility is a $500 million five-year secured facility. In November, the Company also repaid the $150 million term loan due in November 2019 and the balance of the $300 million term loan due in December 2020. The Company is using the majority of the net proceeds from the sale of its Software Solutions business to pay down near-term debt maturities.

Status of Sale of Software Solutions

On August 26, 2019, the Company announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Software Solutions business to Syncsort for $700 million in cash. As a result of the sale, the Software Solutions business has been recorded as a discontinued operation and prior period amounts have been recast to exclude Software Solution’s results from continuing operations. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the calendar year, pending regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Third Quarter 2019 Business Segment Reporting

Effective in the third quarter, the Company revised its segment reporting to combine the North America Mailing and International Mailing segments into the Sending Technology Solutions segment to reflect how it manages these operations and the products and services it provides to its clients.

The Commerce Services group includes the Global Ecommerce and Presort Services segments. Global Ecommerce facilitates domestic retail and ecommerce shipping solutions, including fulfillment and returns, and global cross-border ecommerce transactions. Presort Services provides sortation services to qualify large volumes of First Class Mail, Marketing Mail and Bound and Packet Mail (Marketing Mail Flats and Bound Printed Matter) for postal workshare discounts.

The Sending Technology Solutions segment offers physical and digital mailing and shipping technology solutions, financing, services, supplies and other applications for small and medium businesses to help simplify and save on the sending, tracking and receiving of letters, parcels and flats.

The results for each segment within the group may not equal the subtotals for the group due to rounding.

Commerce Services