NCR Buys Scottish Technology Firm

NCR Corp. said Tuesday that it had bought Mobiqa Ltd., a mobile provider of tickets, boarding passes, downloadable applications and coupons.

The Duluth, Ga., automated teller machine and kiosk maker said the deal would immediately bolster its travel kiosks.

The Edinburgh technology company is to be left intact, and it will work directly with NCR's research and development team in Dundee, Scotland, a spokesman said.

NCR did not disclose the deal's financial details.

"We had been working together on some customers," said NCR spokesman Richard Maton. "So we obviously knew of each other, and from that perspective, we were looking, as a team, to take … their technology to the next level."

Maton said that NCR bought Mobiqa for both its geographical positioning and its technology.

Mobiqa's acquired intellectual property also can have applications in industries besides travel, he said.

Aaron McPherson, a research manager for payments at the Framingham, Mass., research firm IDC Financial Insights, said the deal is significant for payments because it gives NCR the ability to put bar codes on mobile devices.

Some mobile payment systems, such as those used by Starbucks Corp. and Target Corp., display bar codes on phone screens that can be read at the point of sale to gain access to a stored balance.

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