Tech Bytes: Web Payment Firm to Buy Messaging Outfit

Further proclaiming its crossover from Internet payment services to electronic messaging, First Virtual Holdings Inc. said it has agreed to acquire Email Publishing Inc. of Boulder, Colo.

First Virtual agreed to pay six million shares, with an indicated value of $22 million.

First Virtual, controlled by the Japanese-owned information company Softbank Corp., has stopped trying to sell the system it created for low- value payments. It is focusing instead on tapping the Internet's marketing potential via e-mail.

The company wants to be "a single source for interactive messaging needs," said First Virtual president Keith S. Kendrick. "Email Publishing's world-class outbound messaging technology complements our proven reply processing capabilities."

Email Publishing president Andrew Currie said his firm's publishing and software experience is a "natural fit" with First Virtual's focus on financial services, travel services, and catalogue sales.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER