Smart card-based solutions provider TAG Systems has entered into the mobile payments space by acquiring shares in Seglan, the company behind Spanish bank Bankinter’s HCE-based mobile payments service... More
Acquisition
Apple in buy out talks with Clinkle?
Apple has reportedly been in acquisition talks with troubled mobile payments startup Clinkle amidst claims that seven of the company’s staff quit their roles last week following frustration with CEO Lucas Duplan... More
Samsung ‘paid $250m for LoopPay’
Samsung paid about US$250m to acquire LoopPay, developer of the magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology that will form a key part of Samsung Pay when it launches later this year, according to Recode... More
Visa in talks over $20bn Visa Europe acquisition
Visa is in preliminary talks to buy former subsidiary Visa Europe in a deal that may be valued at as much as US$20bn... More
O2 buys out Weve partners and drops mobile payment plans
O2, one of the three UK mobile network operators that formed the mobile commerce joint venture Weve three years ago, has bought out partners EE and Vodafone to operate the brand as a wholly-owned subsidiary — and has confirmed to NFC World that it has abandoned Weve’s mobile payment ambitions... More
PayPal explains why it’s buying mobile wallet provider Paydiant
“What Paydiant has is a clarity of focus on mobile and how large merchants need to utilise mobile to connect with their customers — they’re a small company doing that very successfully with some really cool brands,” Anuj Nayar, senior director of global initiatives at PayPal, has told NFC World as the payment giant prepares to complete its acquisition of the payments platform provider for a reported US$280m... More
Square buys mPOS developer Kili
Square has bought Kili Technology, the Canada-based mPOS startup that acquired NFC-on-microSD pioneer DeviceFidelity in November 2014... More
Samsung Pay’s success in the US is not assured, says expert
Google’s recent acquisition of Softcard’s NFC payments business may hit Samsung Pay’s prospects for widespread US adoption hard, says a respected payments consultant... More
Samsung confirms mobile wallet ambitions with LoopPay deal
Samsung Electronics has announced it is to buy LoopPay, the startup that has developed a way for mobile payments to be made at standard magnetic stripe card terminals... More
Mozido buys PayEase
Mobile payments platform provider Mozido has acquired Chinese cross-border payment gateway provider PayEase with the aim of introducing its mobile payments and retail marketing solutions into the Chinese market... More
Snapchat adopts QR friending
Photo messaging platform Snapchat is letting users add friends to their social network by scanning Snaptags, unique QR codes assigned to each user... More
NFC pioneer Proxama cuts jobs ahead of trading update
UK-based mobile marketing and NFC pioneer Proxama has announced a round of redundancies at its Norwich headquarters with up to 21 people believed to be at risk of losing their jobs... More
Google in talks to buy Softcard to combat Apple Pay?
Google is responding to the successful launch of Apple Pay by going on the mobile payments acquisition trail, according to industry rumours — and US carrier-owned NFC venture Softcard, which laid off 60 staff last week, could be a key target... More
Mozido buys CorFire
Cloud-based mobile payments platform provider Mozido has acquired the majority ownership of mobile commerce specialist CorFire, previously wholly-owned by South Korean IT services provider SK C&C... More
Kili acquires NFC microSD pioneer DeviceFidelity
NFC-on-microSD pioneer DeviceFidelity has been acquired by Kili Technology, a payments processing solution provider which launched an mPOS “solution-on-a-chip” range last month... More
Boku buys carrier billing rival Mopay
Boku, the carrier billing specialist which is working with UK networks to let customers charge the cost of physical goods to their mobile phone bill, has acquired Germany-based rival Mopay... More
Korea’s SK Planet buys US BLE offers platform Shopkick
Mobile offers platform Shopkick, which is working with a number of high profile US retailers to roll out a network of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, has been acquired by SK Planet (SKP), operator of Korea’s largest shopper rewards program and part of the same group as carrier SK Telecom... More
Twitter buys Cardspring
Twitter has acquired card-linked offers platform Cardspring for an undisclosed sum... More
Priceline CEO outlines its plans for OpenTable
“In the area of mobile, there is just tremendous opportunity to enhance the end-to-end experience in both the accommodation business as well as the restaurant business by leveraging mobile as an asset,” Darren Huston, president and CEO of The Priceline Group, has told investors following the accommodation booking giant’s $2.6bn acquisition of OpenTable... More
Priceline buys OpenTable for $2.6bn
Priceline, the world’s leading accommodation booking platform, is to buy restaurant booking service OpenTable for $103 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at US$2.6billion... More