VeriFone Holdings Inc. today announced it has acquired the Taxi Media business from Clear Channel Outdoor Inc., a division of Clear Channel Communications Inc. The deal expands VeriFone’s taxi sales staff to about 30 workers from a “handful” previously, a VeriFone spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.
San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone began selling in-taxi entertainment and payment terminals in 2005. Clear Channel Outdoor has sold taxi advertising space, such as signs on vehicle roofs, since 2000. The company added in-taxi media in 2007.
“VeriFone currently provides advertising opportunities on a number of its taxi cab payment systems in New York City and intends to broaden this footprint to include taxi cab advertising nationwide and to begin a major initiative introducing other payment-enabled media environments,” the spokesperson says.
The acquisition also includes relationships with a nationwide network of taxi media buyers, VeriFone says. VeriFone says it has taxi sales offices in Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco. San Antonio-based Clear Channel and VeriFone did not disclose terms of the deal.
In related news, VeriFone last week said it sees its in-taxi terminals, which also display entertainment programming for passengers, as a test bed for expanding the advanced terminals into traditional retail outlets (
