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Green Dot Acquires Loopt
Prepaid provider, Green Dot, today announced that it is acquiring Loopt, a location-based mobile rewards provider, for $43.4 million. This is an interesting new angle for a company operating in the prepaid market. To date, we�ve seen things like prepaid top-up or reload via a mobile device, prepaid as a payment option in a mobile wallet, or mobile access to prepaid balances and mobile banking-like functionality. But this acquisition goes a step further in that Green Dot has announced its intention to become a significant player in the delivery of mobile point of sale applications. Feature/functionality built around a payment option can create a compelling value proposition for the consumer and will be central to driving the success of mobile POS payment. Loopt�s loyalty applications, and its intellectual property � patents for real time mobile marketing in the context of location-based messaging � can be integrated to help build recurring use of Green Dot�s prepaid options as well as the company�s extensive reload network and services. Will that be enough to vault Green Dot into a leadership position in the market for mobile POS payment? Let�s say it will be a good start and a competitive offering, but there are many contestants in this race, and they are still lining up at the starting blocks.
via Javelin
via Javelin
