News

January, 2006

• 9 January

  Accounting-Software Firm Sage Buys ISO Verus for $325 Million

  In another move by a financial-accounting software company into payment processing, Sage Group PLC is acquiring Verus Financial Management Inc., a privately held independent sales organization, for $325 million in cash. Based in the U.K., Sage markets software used by small businesses to manage finances. Nashville, Tenn.-based Verus provides card …
• 6 January

  ATM King Cardtronics Sees Further Expansion Via Bank Deals in ’06

  After rapid growth that has propelled it to the top of the ranking of U.S. ATM owners, Houston-based Cardtronics Inc. looks toward another year of major expansion in 2006, company officials tell Digital Transactions. In a story appearing in the January-February 2006 issue of the magazine, the company says it …
• 6 January

  Could Labry Move to Merchant Unit Presage a Breakup of First Data?

  With Ed Labry this week taking over First Data Corp.'s acquiring business, including First Data Merchant Services, some industry observers are figuring the Denver-based processing giant may be looking toward spinning off both the merchant division and the lucrative Western Union franchise as independent companies some time within the next …
• 5 January

  BitPass Expands Micropayment Functions with Yaga Acquisition

  BitPass Inc. has acquired rival micropayments processor Yaga Inc. in a deal that hands the Menlo, Calif.-based BitPass technology to support subscription and payment-aggregation models. The acquisition agreement, terms of which were not released, calls for BitPass to take over Yaga's platform, intellectual property, and client contracts. Staff at San …
• 4 January

  Visa Reports $257 Billion for ’05 Holiday Season, with a Dec. 23 Peak

  In its final holiday-spending report for the season, Visa USA said today retail spending on its cards hit $257 billion for November and December 2005, up 17.5% from the same period in 2004. Visa says e-commerce activity for the holiday-shopping season totaled $26.5 billion, peaking at $624 million on Dec. …
• 3 January

  Nearly Three Years Later, Merchants Begin to Get Wal-Mart Payouts

  The first checks to merchants entitled to some of the $3.1 billion settlement fund in the Visa/MasterCard debit card antitrust lawsuit went out last month, but that was only a small fraction of the expected total distribution from what is widely known as the Wal-Mart settlement. That's according to the …

December, 2005

• 28 December

  CEO Daily Succeeds in His Pursuit of Merchant Processor iPayment

  Nashville, Tenn.-based merchant processor iPayment Inc. has agreed to be acquired and taken private by two of the company's top executives in a deal valued at about $770 million. The company's board of directors, along with a special committee of that board established last spring to investigate possible offers for …
• 23 December

  Nokia Says Look for New Phone, Busy Stores in ’06 NFC Payment Pilots

  Projected pilots in 2006 for contactless payment capability on mobile phones with near-field communication (NFC) technology will include high-throughput retail stores, in contrast to the self-contained environment of a sports stadium, where the first such trial began last week (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 14). Tom Zalewski, head of mobile payment …
• 21 December

  Holiday Card Spending Ramps up in Stores And on the Internet

  The week ended Dec. 18 included three of the four heaviest spending days of the holiday shopping season so far, according to the latest report from Visa USA. Spending on Visa-branded cards totaled $5.2 billion on Dec. 16, ranking that day the busiest of the season. Black Friday, the day …
• 21 December

  In a Busy Day, BofA Says Yes to AmEx Network And No to TSYS

  Bank of America Corp. announced today it will begin issuing cards on American Express Co.'s U.S. merchant network and also confirmed that an existing issuing relationship between AmEx and MBNA Corp., which BofA is acquiring for $35 billion, will continue. In a separate announcement, third-party credit card account processor TSYS …