Acquiring

Sovereign Bank has renewed a merchant-processing contract with First Data Corp., the Denver-based processor has announced. The five-year deal represents an extension of Sovereign Merchant Services, which was established in 2001 as one of a number of alliance agreements First Data has concluded with banks in which FDC provides merchant-transaction …

Nashville, Tenn.-based independent sales organization iPayment Inc. expects on Friday to close on its $130 million cash acquisition of a merchant portfolio from First Data Corp. The portfolio consists of 25,000 small merchant accounts generating $9 billion to $10 billion in annual card volume. First Data Merchant Services will continue …

Paymentech L.P. is breaking into the market for small-value transactions with an agreement it announced today with Pepsi Cola North America to process credit and debit card payments at vending machines. Pepsi bottlers have deployed “several hundred” machines in high-traffic locations in the U.S., such as malls, hotels, and casinos, …

Leading point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Inc. has announced it is buying GO Software from Return On Investment Corp. for $13 million in a deal expected to close next month. With the acquisition, San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone expands its presence in the market made up of so-called integrated point-of-sale devices, such …

Nashville, Tenn.-based iPayment Inc. this morning said it has appointed White & Case as its counsel of record in litigation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles, in which it and certain of its officers and directors are defendants against allegations of fraud. The processor also repeated earlier assertions it …

Paradata Systems Inc. is getting set to build up its market share in Internet-based transaction processing in the U.S. To that end, it has added two U.S.-based transaction-processing veterans to its board and is starting to seek out larger independent sales organizations and other resellers to more rapidly expand its …

In a bid to accelerate growth in its merchant base and in its transaction volumes, United Bank Card Inc. says it will give card terminals, check readers, and signature-capture devices free to merchants signed on by independent sales organizations contracted with the Hampton, New Jersey-based processor. The company, which says …

Discover Financial Service's Inc.'s proposed acquisition of the Pulse EFT network, announced yesterday (Digital Transactions News, Nov. 15), hands the Riverwoods, Ill.-based card company instant credibility in the business of PIN debit, but it also may propel Discover's efforts to break into the high-growth signature-debit card arena. Discover, apparently encouraged …

Responding to a year that has seen a steady barrage of viruses, worms, trojans, and other malicious computer attacks, VeriFone Inc. and McAfee Inc. announced today they will offer the first anti-virus software product to protect point-of-sale terminals linked to the Internet. The software will be available starting early next …

Just ahead of the holiday shopping season, VeriSign Inc. has introduced a new mark that e-commerce sites can display to reassure shoppers about the security of their payments. The VeriSign Secured Seal denotes that a Web site uses Secure Sockets Layer encryption and other technologies?including the company's gateways–to guard customer …