Acquirers

Micros, an international provider of checkout systems, is integrating Yapital Financial AG's cross-channel payment technology into its Micros POS systems.

Leaf, a provider of tablets for payments, has hired several executives including a director at Heartland Payment Systems, which recently invested in the startup.

Payments played a major role in the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here are some of the biggest announcements that came out during the conference, and a few from just before or afterwards that were no less important to the mobile payments community.

Square has reportedly delayed an initial public offering, which gives the company a chance to build more services that position it for sustainable growth in the future, according to payments consultant Richard Crone.

Isis expects a lot of banks will leverage host card emulation (HCE) to build their own mobile wallets, though the telecom-led mobile payments scheme also hopes the technology will add breadth to its own service.

Dash Software LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based mobile payment provider that targets restaurants and bars, has raised $1.2 million in investment to launch its updated iPhone app in Manhattan.

Revel Systems and Index are partnering to bring the kind of personalized consumer messaging that's common in e-commerce to the countertops of retail stores.

Square has purchased BookFresh, a company that sells booking and appointment management technology to merchants.

Ingenico's Roam is launching a mobile card reader with chip and PIN acceptance, and it expects U.S. merchants will want to use it to accept PIN debit transactions even before EMV-chip cards become widespread.

HP plans to sell a tablet-based point of sale system that integrates payments with a number of other business operations.

Square will now accept Discover and Diners Club credit card payments in Canada, joining American Express, Visa, MasterCard and JCB credit cards.

French terminal maker Ingenico SA and electronics giant Samsung are combining their mobile payment products to offer merchants an integrated mobile payment system.

A new red Square mobile card reader is available to merchants who want to encourage donations to the Global Fund to fight AIDS.

Mobile point of sale devices typically clip onto phones to allow the handsets to read card payments, but this approach is not the only option.

Former Groupon product chief Jeff Holden has joined transportation services provider Uber as chief product officer, Uber announced on Feb. 14.

Google has made an attempt to bolster its mobile wallet by opening it to more consumers and incentivizing them to use it, but it is unlikely that these changes will help the in-store payment component.

PNC Merchant Services has begun offering Clover Station, a tablet-based point of sale system, to restaurant owners and managers.

While global shipments of mobile point of sale devices reached 8.4 million units in 2013—a 53% increase over 2012—more than 1.3 million of the devices went unused during the year, according to new research from ISH Technology.

Whole Foods Market has agreed to use multiple versions of Square Inc.'s mobile payments technology.

Pizza Patron is integrating Revel Systems' mobile point of sale system into its more than 100 restaurant locations, which had been using several different vendors' products to accept payments.