American Express Co. is purchasing Revolution Money for nearly $300 million to keep up with trends in electronic payments, where new security features and internet credit card processing transaction options are changing traditional models, reports the Associated Press.
According to the article, merchant services provider Revolution Money offers payments authorized at checkout counters with a PIN number, with about 1 million merchants participating in the service. In order to reduce possible identity theft issues, Revolution Cards have no name, signature of account number.
“Acquiring Revolution Money is one step in expanding our reach in emerging payments, and one of the many we expect to take, but an important one," American Express Chairman and CEO Kenneth Chenault said in a conference call.
Revolution Money founder Jason Hogg said the acquisition by New York-based American Express will allow his company "to scale our technology and business years faster than we ever could on our own."
The main point of this acquisition is introducing existing American Express customers to alternative payment systems such as ecommerce merchant accounts, rather than having them go outside the company’s payment network.
