Apple: Samsung acquires Apple Pay competitor LoopPay to accelerate its mobile commerce effort

Samsung acquires Apple Pay competitor LoopPay to accelerate its mobile commerce effort

From 9to5Google: 

Samsung announced in a press release this evening that it has purchased LoopPay, an Apple Pay-like mobile payment company. LoopPay turns existing magnetic stripe card readers into secure, contactless receivers. This means that, in an ideal world, LoopPay would be available in nearly every retailer that accepts magnetic strip cards. A specific acquisition price is unclear at this point.

As part of the deal, however, LoopPay founders and veteran payment industry experts Will Graylin and George Wallner will join Samsung and work closely with the company’s mobile division. The deal was rumored back in December and at the time, Re/code claimed that Samsung was planning to incorporate the technology into its upcoming Galaxy S6 flagship. The device is expected to be released at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.
Read the rest on 9to5Google…

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1. Odys (@twittester10) says: Ok please someone explain to me why Apple did not acquire this company? If this works as shown in the video, Apple Pay may become an afterthought by retailers who must upgrade their terminals for the technology to work. There must be a fundamental reason why Apple choose to go NFC route instead of this magnetic signal method
   
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   • chrisl84 says: Probably because card skimmers could easily intercept the data, the same way they still magnetic strip information now. With Loop Pay a skimmer doesnt even have to be swiped it just needs to be near the terminal.
     
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     • chrisl84 says: steal*
       
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     • OneOkami (@OneOkami) says: The video says they’re working on tokenization which would make that point moot, though. Theoretically, if it’s intercepted, it’ll be useless by the time the thief could do anything with it.
       
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   • Sterling Miller says: NFC is a standard pretty much everywhere in the world but the USA. NFC is still the way everyone will go. Samsung may use this company to pursue a cleaner or better interface for their equipment, but in the end its going to be NFC that people will use.
     
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2. 89p13 says: Typical to Shamesung â€" Steal what :others” are doing with great success, but do it half-assed and insecurely.
   What I’d expect those half-wits to do! Shamesung â€" they never fail to meet my expectations in what they do. ;)
   
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3. 89p13 says: I read this:
   “This acquisition accelerates our vision to drive and lead innovation in the world of mobile commerce. Our goal has always been to build the smartest, most secure, user-friendly mobile wallet experience, and we are delighted to welcome LoopPay to take us closer to this goal,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT and Mobile Division at Samsung Electronics.
   “Drive and lead innovation in the world of mobile commerce.”
   Where does Shamesung lead innovation? All they do is copy Apple and SCREAM -” Apple steals from us!”
   As I stated in my last post â€" They never fail to live down to my expectations of them.
   
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4. Odys (@twittester10) says: On Engadget, someone mentioned a more fundamental, and perhaps a likely reason why Apple sidestepped this tech â€" magnetic strips are old tech soon to be phased out not least because of security issues. But this will not happen over night. At least in the US I expect most retailers to have NFC based terminals by Fall of this year as they are required by law to upgrade. However, at launch Samsung may get a distinct advantage in share of mobile payments, but I am not sure how many people will trust Samsung to handle their credit cards. The key distinction between Apple Pay and this solution â€" is bank â€" phone integration. Knowing Samsung, they are not going to take time to negotiate with banks â€" they will just store all your cards on their servers.
   
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   • chrisl84 says: A quote from a post on cult of mac offers up some scary revelations about LoopPay
     “…I think the technology behind LoopPay is extremely “dangerous”. I know LoopPay’s software does some checks to ensure you are only loading cards that you own or have billing addresses the same as your own â€" but it can only be a matter of time before malicious hackers replicate it â€" reverse engineer it and have their own proprietary app that does not require those checks.
     LoopPay can let you swipe in any magnetic card â€" including loyalty and gift cards and then spits back out that same magnetic signal. So, why not go down to the local Target, swipe a couple of blank gift cards, wait for them to be loaded and then go on a shopping spree? If I were going to make a security proclamation for those interested â€" I’d suggest that if you’re going to buy a gift card going forward from now, only buy the preloaded, prepackaged ones that could not have been swiped into a magnetic reader already.” â€" Tim LeVier
     
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   • OneOkami (@OneOkami) says: I was gonna mention the same thing. I didn’t read the Engadget article but I do know if you look outside the U.S. you’ll know that mag stripes (as well as signatures *sigh*) are becoming antiquated technology that the U.S. particularly is holding on to for now, but even it’s moving towards chips and I’m sure Apple Pay is accelerating NFC adoption.
     That being said, what’s to stop LoopPay from having the ability to transmit tokens over NFC as well as magnetic fields (if it doesn’t do so already)? Right now it looks like a solid acquisition to me.
     
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   • fattym77 says: I’ve been using Loops stand alone product for a while and it’s not nearly as reliable as what is advertised.
     
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5. scumbolt2014 says: Now Scamscum will have users credit cards spying on them while away from their smart tv.
   
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6. samuelsnay says: Apple Pay is dooooooooomed!
   
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