Acquiring

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

EBay Inc.’s first-quarter conference call Tuesday was as remarkable for what chief executive John Donahoe did not say as for what he did say. Asked by a stock analyst for an update on PayPal Inc.’s move into physical stores, Donahoe added little to what eBay and its PayPal unit have …

Independent sales organizations and acquirers considering mobile ticketing as a value-add service to sell to merchants have a new option. n The service works like this. Merchants use a Web portal to set up their events, including details about the name, Web site, times, available tickets, and pricing. Chirrpy also …

  PayPal, the payments arm of online marketplace eBay Inc., has put out a call for more resellers, including independent sales organizations, acquirers, independent software vendors, and value-added resellers. PayPal, which has set up a dedicated Web page soliciting partners, says its ideal partners include “folks that share a similar …

In an effort to become easier for merchant acquirers, merchants, and card issuers to deal with, Visa Inc. late this year will eliminate almost 50% of its operating rules, which currently total more than 1,500 pages, chief executive Charles W. Scharf said Thursday. Scharf made that revelation at Visa’s second-quarter …