News Byte

Braintree Officially Joins PayPal as $800 Million eBay Acquisition Closes

EBay’s $800 million purchase of payments startup Braintree on behalf of its Paypal subsidiary has closed, according to a PayPal blog post. The acquisition gives Paypal a strong foothold in the world of mobile app payments, which it hopes to bolster with the smaller acquisition of StackMob, announced earlier this week.

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Uber Starts Accepting PayPal

PayPal said today that customers of Uber, the car service startup, can now pay their fares using PayPal. Uber also happens to be one of the highest profile customers of Braintree, the payment gateway company that PayPal parent eBay agreed to acquire for $800 million less than two months ago.

Coin: Finally, a New Way to Pay in Stores That People Might Actually Use

One card to store them all.

Square Discontinues Monthly Flat-Rate Plan

The company says that the plan, designed for large businesses, was actually hindering growth for some of them.

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How Will the Isis Mobile Wallet Stand Out? For Now, With Free Smoothies.

Isis, the mobile wallet backed by several mobile carriers, is expected to launch nationwide before the end of the year. And when it does, up to one million people who use its NFC-enabled app at any of the more than 70 percent participating Jamba Juice locations in the U.S. will get a free small smoothie as part of a joint marketing campaign between the two entities. Isis is going to need to give shoppers all of the incentives it can to overcome the lack of adoption for NFC payments in the U.S.

What’s a “Shark Tank” Appearance Worth? A Top Spot in the App Store.

A lot of upside for the QR-code startup Scan.

PayPal Unveils Yet Another Way to Pay in Stores. Now It Has to Get People to Use It.

If only shoppers wanted to use their phones for payments as much as credit card competitors want them to.

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Groupon Brings Payments Product to Verifone Credit Card Terminals in Bid for Mass Adoption

Small businesses that use credit card terminals from Verifone and Ingenico can now use Groupon for payments processing, the company announced today. Previously, merchants could only use Groupon Payments via mobile phones and tablets. Business owners can configure existing Verifone and Ingenico credit card terminals or purchase or rent new Verifone devices from Groupon.

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Research Firm eMarketer Slashes 2013 Mobile Payments Estimate in Half

Research firm eMarketer said Thursday it was cutting its 2013 estimate for total mobile payments in the U.S. from the $2.12 billion it estimated in October 2012 to $1 billion. The firm said that adoption has been slower than anticipated and that competing offerings have hampered growth. Still, the $1 billion total would mark 93 percent growth over the $539 million in mobile payments eMarketer forecast for 2012.

Kohl’s Joins MCX, the Mobile Wallet and Payments Effort Backed by Big Retailers

Can retailers compete with tech companies to build a mobile wallet that shoppers will love?