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The merchant-acquiring business continued its consolidation trend on Wednesday with the news that Priority Payment Systems LLC has merged with Cynergy Data LLC. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, has created an independent sales organization processing some $20 billion annually for 125,000 merchant clients. Comvest Partners, a West Palm …
Read More »Tens of Thousands of Merchants Use the Web To Find a Processor, But ISOs Fare Poorly
There’s at least $30 billion in annual volume up for grabs among merchants using the Web to seek out a processor. Trouble is, independent sales organizations are really lousy at Internet marketing, according to a report released this week. Indeed, ISOs, banks, and point-of-sale software vendors spend about $17 million …
Read More »Intuit Becomes an Electronic Bill-Pay Player With Its Acquisition of Check Inc.
By Jim Daly In what’s shaping up to be a very busy year in the vibrant world of electronic bill payments, financial-management software provider Intuit Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to buy online and mobile bill-pay services provider Check Inc. for $360 million. Rumored for about a month, the deal …
Read More »Gnome Tablet POS System Relies on BLE to Ease Groupon Redemption In Stores
Yet another tablet-based point-of-sale system has joined the fray, this one from daily-deal provider Groupon Inc. Dubbed Gnome, the iPad-based system not only accepts credit and debit cards, but is the centerpiece of a Bluetooth low energy-enabled setup to enable Groupon offers redemption without requiring the consumer to present a …
Read More »Most Contend Only a Minority of Merchants Will Be Ready for EMV, Finds a DTN Survey
In 17 months, a crucial step in the migration of the U.S. payment card industry from the venerable magnetic stripe to smart cards with embedded chips will be under way. But there is little hope that a majority of merchants will be ready to accept the new cards, finds a …
Read More »Venture-Capital Firms Place Their Bets on Bitcoin Merchant-Services Provider BitPay
Law-enforcement agencies and government regulators may be skeptical of, if not outright hostile to, the Bitcoin virtual currency, but at least a few investors have a different attitude. Witness this week’s announcement by BitPay Inc., a processor that provides Bitcoin services to merchants. Atlanta-based BitPay said it had raised $30 …
Read More »COMMENTARY: The Real Significance of Vantiv’s $1.65 Billion Deal for Mercury
Vantiv Inc.’s deal to acquire Mercury Payment Systems LLC was noteworthy for its size—the deal carried a $1.65 billion price tag—but it was also exemplary of a key industry transformation from distribution-centric to product-centric acquiring. For decades, the merchant-acquiring industry has revolved around selling the services of barely differentiated payment …
Read More »Vantiv Announces Plans To Buy Mercury Payment Systems for $1.65 Billion
Payment processor Vantiv Inc. announced late Monday that it has struck a definitive agreement with the majority owner of tech-oriented independent sales organization Mercury Payment Systems LLC to buy Mercury for $1.65 billion in a debt-funded transaction. Durango, Colo.-based Mercury is suspending plans it disclosed in late March for an …
Read More »TSYS Lines Up Behind ShopKeep’s Tablet-Based POS System
Tablet-based point-of-sale provider ShopKeep.com Inc. has lined up payment-processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) as a reseller. Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS will offer ShopKeep products in addition to traditional POS terminals, contactless readers, mobile payments, and online payment acceptance. TSYS say it added ShopKeep because it knows merchants have a need …
Read More »First Data Reduces Loss Despite Merchant-Acquiring and Debit Card Headwinds
Leading payment card processor First Data Corp. on Wednesday reported it lost less money in the first quarter than it did a year earlier despite price compression in its merchant-acquiring business and slow debit card transaction growth. Atlanta-based First Data typically posts an operating profit but a net loss after …
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