Source: VeriFone
VeriFone Systems, Inc. (NYSE: PAY), today announced it has acquired the assets of WAY Systems, Inc, a pioneer in mobile POS solutions and gateway services for mobile merchants. The acquisition will not have a material impact on VeriFone's financial results. The purchase price consisted of an upfront payment of $6 million dollars and an earn-out payable in one year of up to an additional $3 million dollars should certain performance targets be met.
Over the past five years, WAY has built up a customer base of more than 25,000 mobile merchants who use the company's compact mobile POS technology and gateway services. VeriFone will immediately take over support of these merchants within its expanding PAYware Connect Gateway infrastructure. Additionally, VeriFone will offer continuous non-stop support for all existing WAY mobile systems, bolstered by VeriFone's extensive mobile portfolio, including PAYware Mobile and VX Evolution secure payment systems.
WAY possesses substantial intellectual property and reseller relationships that will augment VeriFone's mobile payment solutions strategy. The company was granted numerous patents in the U.S., Europe and China for a range of intellectual property, including the connection of a mag-stripe reader to a mobile phone, PDA or smartphone.
"We are delighted to add the WAY Systems customers and employees to the VeriFone family," said Jeff Dumbrell, VeriFone executive vice president. "The intellectual property we are acquiring will significantly contribute to our vision of empowering wide scale adoption of mobile payments."
WAY Systems was founded in 2002 with initial seed capital from Bill Melton, the founder of VeriFone. From 2004 through 2009, WAY received an additional $50 million in equity investments from Bessemer Venture Partners and Austin Ventures as well as debt financing from Lighthouse Capital Partners.