US e-commerce specialist PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), said in a blog post it had taken over local mobile payments startup card.io for an undisclosed sum.
The target company offers technology for developers to capture credit card information with a smartphone camera. The parties have previously collaborated on PayPal Here, an in-store payment solution for small businesses powered by card.io.
Hill Ferguson, PayPal’s vice president of Global Product, said that card.io’s staff will become part of PayPal global product team in San Jose. Ferguson added that the present card.io technology will remain available to developers for use in their own applications.
The vice president also commended card.io’s team for their creativity and drive, adding that the company’s decision to acquire the firm was also prompted by the employees’ expertise.
As of the fourth quarter of 2011, PayPal’s registered accounts stood at 106m. It was acquired by eBay Inc in 2002. The company’s services are present in 190 markets across 24 currencies and its single global payments engine features solid risk and fraud detection capabilities.
Major online marketplace eBay, established in 1995, has over 100m active users. Last year, the total value of goods sold on eBay was USD68.6bn (EUR55.8bn).
