At last Samsung has acquired LoopPay, the companies announced today. This acquisition confirms earlier reports that were suggesting that the two companies were working closely together on a new upcoming project. This also means that now Samsung can take advantage of LoopPay’s technology to offer its own Apple Pay competitor on upcoming devices.
Moreover LoopPay advertises its solution as an alternative to Apple Pay for non-Apple device makers and shows its compatibility with systems already in place at different retailers throughout the United States. The company’s technology currently works with the usage of a standalone fob or a CardCase.
This helps incorporate the payment tech into a protective case designed for use with some of the top smartphones available in the market. Basically a LoopPay app allows the users to input and store their payment card information and the case communicates wirelessly with existing tap-to pay terminals. It works by copying map stripe technology which basically means that it doesn’t require an updated hardware in most of the stores.
The founders of LoopPay, Will Grayling and George Wallner will be seen joining the Mobile Division of Samsung as part of the acquisition arrangement. Moreover according to a statement by JK Shin the Mobile Division President and Head of IT at Samsung, LoopPay’s talent and technology will help the Korean giant further its mobile wallet ambitions. The Korean giant has made it quite clear that with the help of LoopPay it will develop its own mobile wallet solution which would be a direct competitor to Apple Pay.
David Eun, EVP of Samsung’s Global Innovation Center stated in the joint press release issued by the companies that people at Samsung are very excited to acquire the services of LoopPay and will now bring consumers a mobile wallet solution that will not just be safe and reliable but will also be widely accepted at more locations than any competing service.
Last year in December it was reported that Samsung was negotiating with LoopPay in order to develop an Apple Pay competitor. At that time these negotiations looked more like a partnership rather than an acquisition but it seems that Samsung saw the benefit of bringing LoopPay entirely under its hood to further its interests.
Apart from this Samsung is all ready to launch its new flagship smartphone the Galaxy S6 at the Mobile World Conference on March 1.
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