OTI Sells Identity Division to Focus on Payments

On Track Innovations Ltd. plans to concentrate more time and money on its payments division after closing the sale of its SmartID business to SuperCom Ltd. last week, the Israel-based payments technology provider says.

By selling its digital ID assets for $10 million at closing, with expected performance-based payments up to $12.5 million over time, OTI plans to invest more in its payment software for cashless options, contactless transactions and Near Field Communication development.

"The divestiture marks a major step in executing on our strategic plan of focusing on our core business of providing cashless payment technology and solutions," Ofer Tziperman, CEO of OTI, states in a press release. With the additional cash now on OTI's balance sheet, the company can "more effectively capitalize on the fast growing, multi-billion dollar NFC and cashless payments markets," Tziperman says.

The Isis Mobile Wallet initiative announced last month that it had certified the OTI contactless readers for payments.

The company estimates by the end of 2013 it will have shipped 40,000 NFC payment reader devices to North America and has plans for far more over a three-year period with a distribution partner.

OTI sells a wireless payment plug-in called Wave, which allows users to initiate NFC payments after connecting the device to a smartphone's headphone jack.