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Versa Pay Acquires Wireless Provider |
VersaPay Corporation today announced today that it has acquired control of
Positive Inc. (“Positive”), a leading provider of wireless point of sale
terminals and merchant services in Canada.
Following the closing of the transaction, Positive will
operate as a separate subsidiary of VersaPay Corporation.
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Read more...
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The already-delayed $7.8 billion buyout of Alliance Data Systems Corp. by The Blackstone Group may not be take place as planned, according to a January 28 announcement that indicated the deal may be the latest victim of the turmoil in the credit markets.
An Alliance
Data press release said Alliance was told on January 25 that Blackstone does not
anticipate satisfying a condition laid down by banking regulators requiring a change in control of an Alliance-owned bank. Alliance Data
owns World Financial Network National Bank. The company also owns a
Utah-chartered industrial bank, World Financial Capital Bank, which is regulated
by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Collectively the two banks issue more
than 100 million private-label credit cards for about 85 retailers.
According to
the release, Blackstone says the OCC is has demanded "extraordinary measures” on the part of Alliance and various Blackstone entities, changes Blackstone isn't willing to make. The company said it believes that further talks with OCC are futile, but doesn't list the issues in dispute.
Alliance says it “strongly disagrees” with
Blackstone’s position that the OCC’s proposal to Blackstone’s
lawyers are the agency’s “final position” about the required approvals.
The company also took issue with Blackstone’s dire characterization of the OCC’s conditions.
By invoking federal regulators to halt the deal, Blackstone may be disguising the underlying cause of its new aversion to buying Alliance, which may stem from the fact that financing is getting more difficult to obtain. Blaming regulators may also help Blackstone escape payment of a $170 million termination fee if the deal
falls through.
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Rental Program Boosts Spread of Card-Friendly Vending Machines |
Shipments of USA Technologies' e-Port G6 readers, which process magnetic-stripe
and contactless card transactions, have significantly increased as a result of the
company's Quick Start program, which allows the devices to be rented rather than
purchased by vending-machine owners.
"USA Technologies designed Quick Start in
response to customer demand for more convenient and flexible financing
alternatives, and we have been overwhelmed by how quickly the vending industry
has responded," said USA Technologies' Mike Lawlor in a press release. "The
rapid response from vending operators is confirmation that the vending industry
increasingly wants to offer its customers the option of a credit and debit card
payment alternative."
Earlier last year USA Technologies entered into a fourth
agreement with MasterCard to subsidize e-Port costs in order to construct
acceptance sites for its PayPass contactless card.
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Consumers May Limit NFC Transactions |
Consumers may use their cell phones or other mobile devices
for in-store payments, but most want to limit wireless payments to a single payment card, according to new
findings from technology research firm ABI
Research.
The
preference for just one mobile-payment-enabled card stood out in
results from the mid-November survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers,
according to principal analyst Jonathan Collins. Such cards would be
capable of handling transactions from devices empowered with near-field
communication (NFC) technology. NFC enables handsets and payment
terminals to exchange data with each other at short distances.
Consumers
said they also were concerned about fees. In mobile payments, these could come
from financial institutions as well as telecommunications providers in
the form of a charge for data traffic, similar to the way text
messaging is priced.
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