Pay By Touch Acquires Check ByTouch

SAN FRANCISCO - (12/06/05) -- Biometric payment processor Pay ByTouch continued its recent acquisitions binge and announced Tuesdayit has agreed to acquire biometric rival BioPay LLC, and theHerndon, Va., company's fingerprint identification system for checkcashing. BioPay, which has emerged as a major competitor to Pay ByTouch's fingerprint scanning technology, has relationships withmore than two million customers in 42 states, mostly conveniencestores, grocery stores and gas stations. The purchase price was $82million in cash and Pay By Touch stock. The BioPay deal followslast week's acquisitions by Pay By Touch of troubled cardsprocessor CardSystems Solutions and its 120,000 merchant contracts,and of Capture Resources, Inc., a supplier of payment rewardsprograms. Pay By Touch is marketing a fingerprint authenticationsystem that allows customers to pay by fingerprint at the checkoutcounter, instead of by cash or credit/debit card. The threeacquisitions come two weeks after the company announced it raised$135 million in new capital from several hedge funds.

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