Alternative acquirers

Starbucks and Square, once the hottest couple of the payments world, are splitting up. But their relationship was never perfect; signs of trouble were obvious from the very start.

No wonder Jack Dorsey wants to keep running Square. Dorsey, the payment company's chief executive officer who also just took on the same role at Twitter, is the largest shareholder in Square by a wide margin, with 24.4 percent. The investment firm Khosla Ventures is the second-largest with 17.3 percent, according to Square's registration for an initial public offering filed Oct. 14.

The European mobile point of sale provider payworks plans to expand in the United Kingdom through the hiring of former Verifone executive Frank Landen.

When Square announced its payment processing deal with Starbucks three years ago, accompanied by a $25 million investment from Starbucks, it wasn't clear how the math would benefit the payment processor.

Square, the mobile-payments company founded and led by Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey, filed for an initial public offering.

It wasn't long ago that mobile point of sale companies like Shopkeep were the alternative, the way for very small merchants to finally start accepting cards.

The Automated Clearing House is too expensive and complex to provide faster payments for smaller banks and businesses, claims Dwolla, which contends its open system is a better option for those market segments.

European mobile point of sale gateway provider payworks will offer its service through Miura Systems' EMV and Near Field Communication mobile terminals.

Wireless transactions provider Apriva and payment technology services company Global Payments have teamed up to release a white-label EMV mobile payment offering.

Heartland Payment Systems has certified Digital Dining and its iPad-based point of sale system for its EMV-ready security technologies.