APIs

The private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners will acquire D+H in a deal valued at $3.57 billion.

A new joint venture with Gas Station TV will help Verifone Systems Inc. expand its services in the coming year, providing more exposure for the terminal manufacturer's merchant clients and a stronger media service for its petroleum clients. In addition, Verifone will expand its role as a software provider.

The cross-border payments startup will use proceeds from its Series D round to fuel growth.

The app economy has grown big enough now that many of the early rules no longer apply.

When Visa turned part of its technology shop into an innovator's sandbox, the card brand hoped it would accelerate its evolution from a rail for plastic cards to a diverse commerce enabler.

Third party technology development from APIs and real-time digital payments are expanding, creating a new area of security risk.

Banks are partnering with tech companies to win back some of the small-business customers that the industry lost to fintechs.

Payment companies like Braintree and the card brands have opened up their technology to external developers. The next generation of merchant apps will require even more flexibility and speed.

Screen scraping has plenty of critics, but the alternatives, OAuth and APIs, have their share of detractors, too.

In the gig economy, more companies need to make more frequent payments to workers, and that need is being met through the use of open development tools and web delivered services to power complex transactions.