No other bidders emerged during a so-called go-shop period that expired earlier this month, so Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. reported Tuesday that its planned $3.5 billion buyout by two investment firms remains on track to close at mid-year. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based provider of gift cards and other prepaid card services …

Shift4 Payments LLC has made another acquisition. The acquiring player behind the Harbortouch brand purchased Melville, N.Y.-based CurvePay, which was backed by IRN Payment Systems, Shift4 announced Tuesday. Terms were not disclosed. It was only two weeks ago that Allentown, Pa.-based Shift4 Payments finalized acquisitions for three hospitality point-of-sale providers, …

Network Merchants LLC has agreed to acquire Creditcall, a United Kingdom-based payment gateway provider, processor, and vendor of EMV kernel software. Terms of the deal, including a price and an estimated closing date, were not disclosed in NMI’s official announcement. Roy Banks, NMI’s chief executive, tells Digital Transactions News the …

First Data Corp.’s struggling merchant-acquiring joint ventures with three big banks are showing nascent signs of a turnaround, and business is booming in the company’s prepaid card unit, top executives reported Monday. The Atlanta-based processor reported last year that new merchant referrals from its big joint ventures with The PNC …

As the payment-facilitator model gains favor, understanding the process to become one has become more important than ever. A few years ago, deciding on a payment model was a simple choice for a software vendor or event organizer: Find an independent sales organization to work with or become one. Then, …

Cardlytics Inc., which analyzed 18 billion U.S. purchases in 2016 from customers of more than 1,600 financial institutions, last week filed for an initial public offering of stock that it hopes will raise $75 million in gross proceeds to further expand its marketing platforms. Atlanta-based Cardlytics was founded in 2008 …

The U.S. Marshals Service plans to auction 3,813 Bitcoins in 11 blocks Jan. 22. The agency acquired the digital currency through forfeitures in 18 federal criminal, civil, and administrative cases. Bidder registration opens today. At Thursday morning’s price of approximately $14,000 per Bitcoin, the assets are worth about $53.4 million. …

A startup called Prepaid2Cash announced the availability of its app for both iOS and Android. The app allows holders of network-branded prepaid cards to move money from the card to a bank account within three days. The service costs 7.5% plus $1.50. Payments provider Pinpoint Intelligence said it now serves …

The consolidation trend sweeping through the merchant-acquiring business made headlines again Monday morning with the news that Total System Services Inc. has agreed to buy Boston-based acquirer and technology provider Cayan LLC for approximately $1.05 billion in cash. The deal, which TSYS says it expects to close in the first …

Valve Corp., which operates Steam, a popular gaming site, said it no longer is accepting Bitcoin because of the digital currency’s volatility and acceptance costs, which reached almost $20 in a transaction last week. Bitcoin processor BitPay Inc. said it raised $30 million in additional funding. In 2014, the company …