Big things are happening this week for big businesses, and Payline has all of the details in our latest Payments News Roundup. Acquisitions and new opportunities are abounding among retailers and banks, and we have the latest scoop.
JPMorgan Buys Fintech Startup WePay
CNBC | Wed Oct 18, 2017 — I pay, you pay, WePay. The well-known investment bank JPMorgan has just made their first major fintech acquisition in the company history and purchased the startup, WePay. On Tuesday, JPMorgan announced that it would be providing its 4 million small business clients with the WePay payments technology. Although an exact number is not being reported, the purchase of WePay is said to be above $220 million. WePay offers payment capabilities to business platforms using application programming interfaces, or APIs, to integrate payments with software. The company’s software is currently used by the crowdfunding website GoFundMe.
Venmo Users Can Now Pay at Over 2 Million Retailers
Business Insider | Wed Oct 18, 2017 — Pay here, pay there, pay everywhere! In another move to monetize the peer-to-peer payment app Venmo, PayPal is now giving over 2 million U.S. retailers the ability to accept Venmo payments. This will allow users to leverage their Venmo accounts at multiple retailers when making mobile purchases, such as Forever 21, Footlocker, and others. The national launch of this feature will begin this week. This is good news for retailers for more reasons than one because PayPal merchants will also gain access to a large and engaged customer base of over 7 million Venmo users with minimal friction due to lack of additional payments integration.
States Are So Eager to Win Amazon’s HQ2 They’re Offering the Company As Much As $7 Billion
CNBC | Thurs Oct 19, 2017 — That’s billion, with a capital “B”. It’s no secret that many companies have been vying for the attention of the eCommerce king, Amazon, as they prepare to build a second Amazon headquarters. What may not be as well-known is just how badly some companies want the coveted honor of playing host to the new campus.
New Jersey has proposed $7 billion in potential credits against state and city taxes should Amazon put down roots in Newark and stick to hiring commitments. Meanwhile, California has offered $300 million in incentives plus other unnamed benefits. New York has yet to include incentives with its proposal but is suspected to change that. These are just a few of the dozens of cities competing for the chance to break ground for Amazon’s next headquarters location, and Amazon will make the decision announcement sometime next year.
Capital One’s New Cash-Back Credit Card for Foodies
CNNMoney | Tue Oct 17, 2017 — Have your cake and get cash back too. Foodies will savor a new consumer credit card from Capital One that aims to pay people back for an already-popular spending area: dining out. The new card, aptly named “Savor”, offers unlimited cash back in standard categories like 2% back on groceries and 1% on all other purchases. But foodies will be taken most by the 3% cash back on dining that makes it unique from other cash-back rewards cards.
“The passion for food as a shared experience is very important to people,” says Mark Mattern, vice president of U.S. Card at Capital One.
The spending on food in restaurants has increased 20% over the last three years, and now Capital One wants to give something back to those savory spenders. This new credit card is not only to greet the audience of a large industry but also to meet most customers’ desire to get actual cash back over rewards programs. Restaurant frequent fliers will be sure to get a lot out of this no-annual-fee credit card.
Nordstrom Shelves Its Months-Long Plan to Go Private
The Washington Post | Tue Oct 17, 2017 — After being unable to secure financing, Nordstrom company executives announced this week that they were ending efforts to go private — at least for the time being. The Seattle-based company has claimed that they intend to continue their efforts toward becoming private at the end of the upcoming holiday season. Members of the Nordstrom family, who currently own 31%, are looking to buy the remainder of the company and take it private, but have not yet had success in procuring the necessary finances to take control of the $7 billion company. A successful holiday season will be a key factor in the ability to move forward with the plan to go private.
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