Sunday , April 6, 2025

Competitive Strategies

Just As NFC Gains Impetus, An Analyst Casts Doubt on Supply of Phones

  With companies like Google Inc., Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc., and the major wireless carriers talking in recent months about near-field communication projects, observers could be forgiven for concluding that NFC-based mobile payments are poised for a breakthrough in the U.S. market. There could be just one problem: no NFC …

Read More »

A New Alphabet Soup, VARs and ISVs, Spells An Effective, But Expensive, Channel for Acquiring

  Merchant acquirers once relied on independent agents, direct sales, and agent bank relationships to sign up merchants. Now, a new group has entered the picture and is accounting for a rapidly increasing share of new merchant accounts. Value-added resellers and independent software vendors will enroll 15% of all new …

Read More »

The DoJ Anoints Gores As the Designated Buyer of Hypercom’s U.S. Assets

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that it had reached a settlement with point-of-sale terminal makers VeriFone Holdings Inc. and Hypercom Corp. that calls for the sale of Hypercom’s U.S. assets to a unit of private-equity firm Gores Group LLC. The settlement removed an obstacle that held up VeriFone’s …

Read More »

Visa Outlines New Fee Structure To Defend Its Debit Business

As Visa Inc. moves into the post Durbin-era, the debit card market leader plans to offer a fixed network participation fee and reduce its variable processing fee for Visa debit products in the United States. Executives expect the new fee structure will make Visa a more viable alternative to competing …

Read More »

ACI Announces a $540 Million Bid for S1, Casting a Shadow over S1’s Fundtech Deal

  In a surprise development that has the potential to scuttle a merger agreement between payments-software firms S1 Corp. and Fundtech Ltd., ACI Worldwide Inc. on Tuesday announced a cash-and-stock bid valued at $540 million to acquire its Atlanta-based rival S1. If the deal is consummated, it will combine two …

Read More »

PayPal’s Slick New NFC-Based P2P Tech Could Be Prelude to POS Play

  PayPal Inc. this week demonstrated its slick new person-to-person payments option for Android smart phones equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology. The demo gave birth to a crop of headlines in online tech publications, but the new service may be little more than a prelude to bigger things PayPal …

Read More »

NCR Jockeys for POS Position with $1.2 Billion Deal for Radiant Systems

  NCR Corp. bolstered its position at the point of sale this week by announcing a deal to buy Radiant Systems Inc. for $1.2 billion in cash. Alpharetta, Ga.-based Radiant Systems is a specialist in POS software and hardware for various merchant segments, especially the hospitality industry and specialty retailers. …

Read More »
Digital Transactions