Trend Report
구글, 모바일 결제기업
‘소프트카드’ 인수 추진
구글이 미국 이동통신사들이 만든 모바일 결제기업인 ‘소프트카드’ 인수에 나섰다. 소프트카드는 AT&T, 버라이즌, 티모바일(T-Mobile) 등이 모여 만
든 컨소시엄이다. 소프트카드는 그동안 경영난을 겪었고, 구글이 두팔 걷고 나선 것. 이베이에서 곧 분리될 페이팔(Paypal)도 소프트카드 인수에 관
심을 표명했다.
Google Is In Talks With Mobile
Payments Company Softcard
Apple has Apple Pay, and now it looks
like Google may be fattening up its own
wallet. According to people familiar with
the situation, the search giant and maker of
Android is interested in buying Softcard, the
mobile payments company formerly known as
Isis.
The price may be under $100 million,
according to our sources. That is either a huge
bargain or a testament to Softcard’s difficulties
as an enterprise: sources tell us that AT&T,
Verizon and T-Mobile ? the three carriers that
started Isis in 2010 ? have collectively invested
hundreds of millions of dollars in the joint
venture.
Softcard earlier this month laid off about 60
employees and has been in a consolidation
phase. The company would not comment
on the M&A rumors or how much has been
invested in the operation but provided a
comment about the layoffs.
“Softcard is taking steps to reduce costs
and strengthen its business. This includes
simplifying the company’s organizational
structure and consolidating all operations into
its Dallas and New York offices, which involves
layoffs across the company,” a spokesperson
said. “We believe these efficiencies will best
position Softcard in the marketplace while
maintaining focus on serving our market.”
Google also declined to comment. “We
don’t have a comment, background, deep
background, off the record steer, nod, wink
or any other verbal or non-verbal response to
these sorts of rumors,” the company said in an
emailed statement.
Softcard, created as a unified front for the big
carriers to come to market with a “contactless”
NFC mobile payments solution (also what
Apple Pay uses), says that there are over
200,000 merchants in the U.S. (including
some biggies like Subway and McDonalds)
that can accept payments with its app, which
is available for Android and Windows Phone
devices but not Apple’s iPhone handsets.
Softcard app users can activate payment
cards from American Express, Chase, Wells
Fargo and other banks in the app to then
use their phones to pay for things with those
merchants.
It’s not clear, however, whether the service
picked up a lot of traction with consumers, or
what kind of a return the service was getting.
Led by CEO Michael Abbott, the company in
November 2014 undertook a new marketing
campaign around a new mascot called “Tappy,”
created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the
same group that created the Muppets, in “a
new campaign aimed at educating consumers
on Softcard and mobile payments in a fun,
social, and sharable way.”
A source tells us that at one point the
company’s burn rate was around half a million
dollars per day, or around $15 million per
month.
Google’s interest in the company had been
rumored elsewhere (see here and here,
where PayPal is also named). Our sources
note that both PayPal and Microsoft have also
approached the company.
Another possibility, if an external sale is not
achieved, would be JV partners AT&T or
Verizon taking it under one of their wings,
although they have also been looking at
developing their own wallet services for
mobile devices.
Our sources say that one of the reasons for
Google’s interest is Softcard’s patents, or more
specifically what appear to be applications for
patents. The company has just over 120 in all.
There are also existing relationships with the
JV (joint venture) carriers, and there could
potentially be deals in negotiation to hold on
to these, and their retail channels, as part of the
transaction.
Amidst the rumors, at Softcard itself, we’ve
heard that morale has been pretty low at the
company.
“People at Softcard have a limited view on
what’s going on,” one source said. “The whole
place has been in a complete depression for at
least six to eight months, to the point where
people weren’t coming to work, and were
being told in December to take it easy through
the end of the year. In general, it’s not a culture
with a lot of transparency, so a lot of people are
thinking the worst.”
Another ex-employee I talked to who would
go on the record notes that the timing is pretty
bad. . . .
원문 : http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/16/softcard
& Mobile rnd
30