Monitise PLC said Monday that it had agreed to buy out its partner in the British mobile banking and payments joint venture Monilink Ltd.
Monitise, a London developer of mobile banking software, said it would pay its partner VocaLink Ltd. nearly $2.5 million over the course of three years to take full ownership of Monilink, of which each had owned 50%. Monitise could pay another $2.5 million if Monilink surpasses certain financial targets by June 30, 2013.
This deal "gives us full ownership and control of a rapidly growing business" and "streamlines the overall Monitise group structure," Duncan McIntyre, the company's chairman, said in a press release.
Monilink also is to pay service fees to maintain access to VocaLink's banking and payments infrastructure, which is the foundation technology for Britain's Faster Payments initiative for near-real-time electronic money movement.
Monitise has a similar joint venture in the United States with Metavante Technologies Inc. in Milwaukee to use the latter's NYSE network for mobile transactions. Representatives of Metavante and Monitise Americas LLC in Providence, R.I., did not respond by deadline to requests for comment.
