Visa Inc acquires Playspan

Visa Inc has acquired payment solutions
provider PlaySpan in a deal worth $190m in a bid to extend its
reach into digital and mobile commerce.

PlaySpan’s ‘Monetisation-as-a-Service’ payment
platform handles transactions for digital goods in online games,
digital media and social networks. This allows merchants to
monetise their content using a suite of payment and
commerce-related solutions in fraud and risk management, analytics,
merchandising and global payment connectivity.

Global e-commerce sales reached an estimated
$948bn in 2010, according to financial services firm JP Morgan
Chase’s research Electronic Banking Options, Mobile Payment
Forecast 2010 – 2014. Marketing research company ComScore’s Q4
2010’s data showed that about 45% of the US’ online spend takes
place on Visa’s network and in its Q1 2011 results, Visa reported a
25% year-on-year growth in e-commerce payment volumes globally.

PlaySpan generated an estimated $25bn in
consumer spending globally in 2010. Research and analyst firm
Forrester Research forecasts that this figure is expected to rise
to $280bn by 2014 in professional services company
PricewaterhouseCoopers’s (PwC) Global entertainment and media
outlooks 2010-2014.

The deal is expected to complete in Q2 2011,
pending “satisfaction of customary closing conditions including
regulatory approvals.”