Western Union Reports Second Quarter Results

GAAP Revenue Increases 7%, Constant Currency Revenue Increases 5%

EPS of $0.41, or $0.42 Excluding Restructuring Expenses
2011 Revenue and EPS Outlook Increased

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) today reported financial results for the 2011 second quarter.

Financial highlights for the quarter included:

• Revenue of $1.4 billion, an increase of 7% compared to last year’s second quarter
• Constant currency adjusted revenue increase of 5%
• Operating margin of 25.7%, or 26.3% excluding restructuring expenses, compared to 24.4%, or 27.1% excluding restructuring expenses, in the prior year. Current quarter includes $6 million of costs related to the Travelex Global Business Payments acquisition
• Gain of $0.03 per share in Other income related to the Company’s previous 30% ownership position in Angelo Costa S.r.l.
• EPS of $0.41, or $0.42 excluding restructuring expenses, compared to $0.33 in the prior year, or $0.36 in the prior year excluding restructuring expenses
• Year-to-date cash provided by operating activities of $506 million
• Restructuring expenses of $9 million, or $6 million after-tax, related to organizational changes and other actions as previously disclosed by the Company

Additional highlights for the quarter included:

• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) revenue increase of 8% reported and 5% constant currency on transaction growth of 6%; C2C represented 84% of Company revenues
  • Europe, Middle East, Africa and South Asia (EMEASA) region revenue increase of 8% on transaction growth of 4%
  • Americas region revenue increase of 5% on transaction growth of 7%
  • Asia Pacific (APAC) region revenue increase of 16% on transaction growth of 12%
  • C2C operating margin of 28.6% compared to 29.1% in prior year
• Global Business Payments revenue increase of 4%
  • Bill payments revenue increase of 2%
  • Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS) revenue increase of 14%
  • Global Business Payments operating margin of 19.9% compared to 18.9% in the prior year
• Electronic channels revenue increase of over 35%. Electronic channels, which include westernunion.com, account based money transfer, and mobile money transfer, represents 3% of total Company revenue for the quarter
• Prepaid cards in force of 1.1 million, with retail distribution available at approximately 12,000 U.S. locations
• Growth in agent locations to 470,000
• Agreement to acquire Travelex Global Business Payments (TGBP), a leading specialist provider of international business payments, which enhances the Company’s position in one of its key strategic growth areas, business-to-business cross border payments
• Agreement to acquire the remaining 70 percent of Finint S.r.l., a leading money transfer network agent in Europe, which provides the Company more direct access to agent locations and scale benefits on existing European infrastructure
• Share repurchases of $135 million (6.6 million shares at an average price of $20.35 per share) and dividends paid of $50 million in the quarter. Quarterly dividend increased 14%, to $0.08 per share, in May

Additional Statistics

Additional key statistics for the quarter and historical trends can be found in the supplemental table included with this press release.

Western Union President and Chief Executive Officer Hikmet Ersek commented, “We continue to see solid trends in our business, and I am pleased we are able to raise our full year outlook for both revenue and earnings per share. The consumer-to-consumer business is growing in each of our regions, and our bill payments revenue growth turned positive in the quarter for the first time since 2008. We also made further strides in electronic channels, which now represent 3% of total Company revenue.”

Ersek continued, “I am very excited about the recent announcement regarding the acquisition of Travelex Global Business Payments, which will give us immediate scale, further reach, and added capabilities in the business-to-business cross border payments market. Our existing b-to-b business, Western Union Business Solutions, is on track for good growth this year, and we are expanding distribution through our money transfer agent network in several countries. The combination of Travelex Global Business Payments and Western Union Business Solutions will give us a strong foundation for long-term growth in international business payments.”

Ersek added, “We continue to deploy the Company’s strong cash flow against our priorities of investing in the business, making strategic acquisitions to accelerate growth and diversify our sources of revenue, and returning funds to shareholders through both share repurchase and dividends, while maintaining a strong balance sheet. In addition to the Travelex Global Business Payments acquisition, which is expected to close late this year, we completed the purchase of one of our leading money transfer network agents in Europe, Angelo Costa, in April, and expect to complete the Finint acquisition later this year. We have also been active in the first half of the year in returning funds to shareholders. In May, we raised our dividend by 14%, and year-to-date through June we have repurchased $660 million of our shares.”

Merchant Warehouse Introduces Bob Cellucci, Vice President of Business Development for Partner Channel at RetailNow Conference

July 26, 2011 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

Company will rely on years of business development experience to cultivate and nurture strategic partnerships for future growth

RSPA RetailNow 2011 Conference

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merchant Warehouse®, a premier provider of merchant accounts and credit card processing solutions, today announces Bob Cellucci as the new vice president of Business Development for the Partner Channel. Cellucci, who brings extensive experience in partner channel sales and business development, will focus on cultivating strategic partnerships within the payment solutions industry. Cellucci will be in attendance at the RSPA RetailNow 2011 Conference meeting with existing and future Merchant Warehouse partners. The show is being held July 24-27 in Orlando, Fla.

“Bob comes to us with a proven record of success and his ability to think creatively and strategically and develop partnerships that will grow the Merchant Warehouse partner channel brings an added level of excitement and expectation”

Cellucci brings over 20 years of experience in partner channel business development roles, having held executive management positions from Paper Thin, ATG and Authoria.

“I’m excited to join Merchant Warehouse at this time as the company is growing rapidly and leading the industry through innovation and thought leadership; I’m confident my experience will assist Merchant Warehouse as it continues to thrive moving forward,” said Cellucci.

“Bob comes to us with a proven record of success and his ability to think creatively and strategically and develop partnerships that will grow the Merchant Warehouse partner channel brings an added level of excitement and expectation,” said Henry Helgeson, co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse. “We’ve seen great success in nurturing partnerships that have allowed our company to strengthen its position within the POS industry. Moving forward we want to push that envelope and we believe Bob will take us in that direction.”

Cellucci will be at the Merchant Warehouse booth, No. 207, throughout the RetailNow Conference, speaking with current partners and introducing the company to future partner prospects.

About Merchant Warehouse

Merchant Warehouse offers secure, award-winning payment processing solutions and merchant account services to merchants and partners nationwide. Since 1998, Merchant Warehouse has helped over 100,000 merchants to securely process all forms of electronic payments. The company continues to lead the industry with groundbreaking technology initiatives: MerchantWARE^®; BINsmart™; and MerchantWARE Mobile. Merchant Warehouse has been named the ETA 2009 ISO of the Year, Business Solutions’ Best Channel Vendor three years in a row (2009-2011) and is a two-time recipient of the Boston Business Journal Pacesetter Award. Merchant Warehouse co-CEO, Henry Helgeson, was also named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 for New England. The company is committed to community and charitable involvement and maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. For more information, please visit merchantwarehouse.com or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MWarehouse. Visit their blogs at http://blog.merchantwaresolutions.com/and http://blog.merchantwarehouse.com/.

Heartland Payment Systems Takes Higher Education Institutions to the Cloud with WĒPA Wireless Printing

July 26, 2011 08:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

Convenient, cost-effective solution to be installed at the University of West Florida this summer

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Heartland Payment Systems'^® (NYSE: HPY) Campus Solutions^SM division is driving efficiencies at higher education institutions nationwide with the introduction of WĒPA™ — a wireless printing solution. Cost-effective and turnkey, WĒPA eliminates an institution’s dependence on equipment purchases/leases, hardware and software licenses and maintenance and server integration fees, while offering its student community enhanced convenience and cutting-edge printing technology.

“Research has shown that the key challenges facing universities today are saving money, increasing employee productivity and enhancing student education through advanced technologies”

Employing cloud computing, WĒPA enables students to upload documents for printing wherever Internet service is provided. Printing kiosks can be placed virtually anywhere on campus to meet the needs of the school community — students are no longer confined to computer labs or libraries. Once registered, students simply visit their preferred WĒPA kiosk, log in and select a method of payment to print their documents. Supporting multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, Lenox and Unix), WĒPA offers students the option to print their documents in black and white or color, as well as double-sided prints.

“Given the rapid adoption of cloud-based applications and data storage, we wanted to help take campuses to the next level with cloud-based printing services. Offering tremendous benefits to higher education institutions, WĒPA streamlines operations and decreases costs, while simultaneously delivering enhanced convenience to its student body,” said Fred Emery, vice president and general manager of Heartland Campus Solutions. “We’re thrilled to partner with WĒPA to offer this advanced technology to campuses across the country.”

WĒPA kiosks can also double as a campus communications tool. When not in use for printing, the touchscreen monitors can be used to display announcements, emergency notifications/alerts, sporting event schedules and other types of promotion.

“Research has shown that the key challenges facing universities today are saving money, increasing employee productivity and enhancing student education through advanced technologies,” said Frank Griffith, president and chief executive officer of WĒPA. “WĒPA was designed with these priorities in mind, and it’s been a pleasure to work with companies like Heartland to aid higher education institutions in streamlining their operations, reducing costs and improving student satisfaction.”

The University of West Florida (UWF) is currently working with Heartland to install WĒPA on its campus. Kiosks will be available at various locations across campus, including the UWF Student Center, libraries, computer labs, residence halls and classrooms.

“We are very excited to be the first school working with Heartland to implement the WĒPA printing system. We believe now is the right time to implement such a convenient solution that offers quality and speed, and seamlessly ties in with our university’s sustainability efforts — offering the ability to duplex print,” said Joyce Hughes, manager, ID Card Office of the University of West Florida. “The opportunities WĒPA will provide our students should be nothing but positive.”

Offering universities a 100 percent purchasing reduction in printer hardware and supplies, WĒPA requires no equipment purchases or installations. The system also easily integrates with the Heartland OneCard, a multi-functional campus card program that can be used for identification, off-campus purchases, financial aid disbursement and work study payments, library checkouts, building/parking access, dining services and vending — among many other applications.

Heartland Campus Solutions is changing the landscape for academic institutions nationwide with unique campus card programs, state-of-the-art access control/security systems and cost-effective payments processing. For more information about installing WĒPA, please visit HeartlandPaymentSystems.com/Campus or call 800.486.4462.

About Heartland Payment Systems

Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE: HPY), the fifth largest payments processor in the United States, delivers credit/debit/prepaid card processing, gift marketing and loyalty programs, payroll, check management and related business solutions to more than 250,000 business locations nationwide. A FORTUNE 1000 company, Heartland is the founding supporter of The Merchant Bill of Rights, a public advocacy initiative that educates merchants about fair credit and debit card processing practices. The company is also a leader in the development of end-to-end encryption technology designed to protect cardholder data, rendering it useless to cybercriminals. For more information, please visitHeartlandPaymentSystems.com, MerchantBillOfRights.org, CostOfABurger.com and E3secure.com.

About WĒPA

WĒPA (pronounced wee-pah) is an acronym for Wireless Everywhere Print Anywhere. Providing the most extensive, reliable and convenient cloud printing network in the world, WĒPA enables anyone with an Internet connection to upload their documents and print them anywhere a WĒPA kiosk is located. For more information, please visit WEPANow.com.

USA Technologies Issues Letter to Shareholders

July 26, 2011 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--USA Technologies (NASDAQ: USAT) issued the following letter to Shareholders today:

Dear Shareholder,

At the USA Technologies, Inc. (“USAT”) annual shareholders meeting on June 13, 2011, I stated that the Company would achieve record revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, as well as record recurring revenues from license and transaction fees, cashless transactions processed, and record new customers.

With the quarter now ended, I am delighted to report that USAT has achieved those anticipated results.

At our shareholders meeting, I indicated that we were headed for a significant leap in sales for fiscal 2011 compared to fiscal 2010. Our unaudited total revenue for fiscal 2011 is approximately $22.9 million, an increase of 45 percent compared to $15.8 million a year earlier. Five years ago, our fiscal year ended June 30, 2006 annual total revenue was $6.4 million.

On June 13, I indicated that annualized recurring revenue in license and transaction fee revenues would be up significantly. They were. Unaudited fiscal year recurring revenue from license and transaction fees totaled approximately $16.4 million, an increase of 76 percent from $9.3 million a year ago. Five years ago our recurring revenue was just $1.2 million.

Unaudited gross profit grew by 59 percent, totaling approximately $7.8 million for the fiscal year, up from $4.9 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010.

I predicted that the quarter ended June 30, 2011 would set a new record for total revenue of approximately $7 million, of which $5 million would be made up of recurring network service and transaction processing fees. Once again, we delivered. The unaudited June 30, 2011 quarter total revenue is up approximately 53 percent from the approximately $4.5 million in total revenue earned for the same quarter a year ago. Revenues in the June 30, 2011 quarter were more than the entire fiscal year total revenues just five years ago. The unaudited recurring revenue for the June, 30 2011 quarter grew approximately 72 percent from the $2.9 million earned for the same quarter a year earlier.

There’s more good news to report. At the shareholder meeting, I forecasted that by June 30, 2011, we would add 200 new customers and grow our customer base to 2,000. We did. We almost doubled the 1,050 customers we had just a year earlier.

In addition, we ended the fiscal year 2011 with approximately 119,000 connections. We grew connections 45 percent from the 82,000 connections just a year ago. Finally, I forecasted that the number of transactions we processed for our customers during the June 2011 quarter would grow to more than 20 million, totaling an aggregate dollar value of approximately $37 million. We hit our goal. We processed 22.5 million transactions in the June 30, 2011 fiscal quarter compared with 11.7 million the same quarter 12 months ago, up 92 percent. And the dollar value of transactions processed for our customers grew 80 percent to $37.4 million, from $20.8 million a year ago.

And still there’s more good news. Today, USA Technologies is virtually debt free, and we have approximately $13 million available in cash (unaudited), ready for investment in the Company’s future growth. As I told shareholders a month ago, based on the revenues during April 2011, USAT was currently on an annual run rate of $ 28 million in revenue, and based on anticipated recurring revenues for the June 30, 2011 quarter, USAT was currently on an annual run rate of $ 20 million of recurring revenue.

The reason for this growth is evident. Customers in the self serve, small ticket traditional food and beverage vending industries we serve are rewarding us for our product innovation, our services, and particularly for our unique sales incentives, such as JumpStart. JumpStart is a sales winner and competition killer. It allows operators the ability to acquire our ePort cashless technology and services for a small monthly fee. There is no need for operators to make an upfront capital investment. JumpStart is industry unique and our most effective and successful customer ‘buy-in’ incentive.

USAT pioneered cashless payment, contactless payment, and JumpStart in the self serve, small ticket vending, kiosks and self-serve POS industries. No one else in the markets we serve offers a sales incentive like JumpStart. And we are the small ticket, traditional beverage and food vending industry’s only one-stop-shop, total solution provider. We provide our customers and that industry everything they need to go cashless.

We believe that the recent growth of our business illustrates that our industry’s conversion to cashless payment is accelerating. We are convinced that the small ticket food and beverage vending industry is reaching the “Tipping Point” in going cashless. Cashless is giving consumers the ease and convenience they want when making payment at a vending machine. If the consumer has no cash, they most likely will have a credit or debit card.

When it comes to the very latest NFC (near-field communication) payment trend, we were there from the beginning, ideally positioned and ready to capitalize on the anticipated move to NFC payment. As more advanced contactless and NFC payment methods emerge, and bring greater operator and consumer convenience, efficiency and security, we believe that mobile commerce may grow to mainstream usage.

Our ePort G8 cashless terminal is capable of accepting all forms of payment, from traditional swipe cards, to contactless cards and tags, and NFC equipped mobile phones where consumers could make payments with their cell phones.

We have entered the era of the active merchant and mobile consumer, and that’s where USAT intends to lead, and grow. We believe that never has the future of vending and self-serve retail commerce looked more promising or exciting than now.

Small ticket, food and beverage vending is USAT’s biggest market for cashless solutions, but we are also receiving increasing requests and seeing more conversion to cashless in ’other’ self-serve retail industries such as kiosks, laundry services, automotive, and amusement industries. The cashless option is helping these ‘other’ self-serve businesses overcome the same challenges the vending industry experienced, such as limitations on how much cash or coin a consumer carries, price elasticity barriers, as well as growing demand from consumers wanting to use credit or debit.

Our over-riding goal is to improve the consumer’s purchasing experience, and grow business for our customers. The interactivity that may be offered by mobile commerce where operators could transmit discounts, coupons, sales incentives and advertising to a consumer’s cell phone, could create the potential for an entirely new, and even more convenient shopping experience. We believe that it could bring the operator and consumer closer together through communications like never before.

USA Technologies has worked long and hard executing business plans, overcoming challenges, innovating, leading, and pursuing opportunities. Now I believe that we are beginning to see the rewards for our efforts and sacrifices.

Pursuant to its processing agreements with its customers, the Company earns transaction processing fees equal to a percentage of the dollar volume processed by the Company, which are included as licensing and transaction processing revenues in its Consolidated Statements of Operations. The Company’s transaction processing volume is not indicative of the gross profit from license and transaction fees. The Company’s audited financial results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011 will be reported in the Company’s Form 10-K which the Company anticipates filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by no later than September 28, 2011.

Thank you for all your support.

Sincerely,
George R Jensen Jr
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

About USA Technologies:

USA Technologies is a leader in the networking of wireless non-cash transactions, associated financial/network services and energy management. USA Technologies provides networked credit card and other non-cash systems in the vending, commercial laundry, hospitality and digital imaging industries. The Company has been granted 79 patents and has agreements with Verizon, Visa, Compass and others. Visit our website at www.usatech.com.

National Processing Company Signs Long Term Contract Extension with Select Merchant Services, Inc.

CINCINNATI, July 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- National Processing Company (NPC), a Vantiv, LLC company, is pleased to announce that it has recently renewed a multi-year Independent Sales Organization (ISO) contract renewal with Select Merchant Services, Inc. dba Retriever Merchant Solutions for the provision of debit and credit card processing services to merchants.  

With a strong commitment to superior customer service and long-term growth, Select Merchant Services provides a full suite of industry-leading merchant services.  One of NPC's partners for more than a decade, Select Merchant Services appreciates the value that the combined capabilities and expertise of Vantiv, LLC and NPC bring to meeting the unique payment processing needs of small and medium enterprise (SME) businesses.

"I have been a member of the NPC family for almost 12 years and I am thrilled to be working with the combined NPC and Vantiv Leadership Team. I have seen the tremendous synergy and service that has been demonstrated already and look forward to continuing the relationship for many years to come," said Brian Kamstra, President of Select Merchant Services.  "Today more than ever ISOs need to have a partner they can trust in all aspects of business. NPC has been, is, and will be that kind of partner for me. I'm excited to extend my relationship with NPC for what I hope to be the rest of my career."

"Select Merchant Services has been a valued partner for many years and we are very excited they have made a long term commitment to the future by extending this relationship for multiple years," commented Adam Coyle, President of NPC.  "We remain fully committed to providing the support and payment options to their valued customers in the SME market."  

About Select Merchant Services

Select Merchant Services, Inc. (SMS) was established in March 1994. What began as a small sales office with one employee and two sales representatives has evolved into a vibrant ISO with over 50 employees, 100 sales representatives, and 17,000 merchants. SMS has a 26-person call center that sets leads for outside representatives and will soon start a second call center to double the amount of leads that are distributed to the sales force. SMS has always focused on the small to medium sized merchant niche and has specialized in giving personal support to all of its representatives.

About National Processing Company

Based in Louisville, Kentucky, with additional facilities in Houston, Texas and Chicago, Illinois, National Processing Company (NPC) is one of the largest providers of payment processing services exclusively focused on the small-to-medium merchant processing market.   NPC provides a wide range of payment processing services, from point-of-sale credit card and debit card processing to integrated e-commerce solutions.  NPC is a subsidiary of Vantiv, LLC.  Learn more at www.npc.net.

About Vantiv

Vantiv, LLC is one of the largest providers of payment strategies and technology solutions for financial institutions and businesses worldwide. Formed in 1971 and most recently known as Fifth Third Processing Solutions, LLC, the Company builds strategic partnerships with its customers, helping them become more efficient, more secure and more successful.  Headquartered inCincinnati, Ohio, Vantiv, LLC is a joint venture between Advent International and Fifth Third Bank, a subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB).

Vantiv, LLC supports more than 400,000 merchant and financial institution locations and 12,000 ATMs in 46 states and 8 countries. The company processes more than 11.4 billion ATM and POS transactions and nearly $400 billion in debit and credit sales volume annually.  Its subsidiary, NPC, is the largest provider of payment processing services exclusively focused on the small-to-medium merchant processing market. According to the Nilson Report (March 2011), the Company is the largest PIN Debit U.S. acquirer and third largest U.S. merchant transaction acquirer ranked by general purpose transaction volume. For more information, visit www.vantiv.com.

Alternative Payments & Mobile Retail Services: Chicago September 13th & 14th

Growing debate in the alternative payments space has left retailers intrigued yet confused. Emerging from all of the deliberation is great opportunity in the form of cutting edge value-added services being incorporated into mobile devices. Couponing and loyalty programs are skyrocketing, accompanied by cutting edge mobile marketing and advertising platforms that offer retailers great opportunity to attract new customers, increase consumer spending, enhance brand loyalty, and achieve a better total view of their customers.

RAMP delivers the most innovative and diversified gathering of mobile commerce platforms in the market today. Leading retailers come together to discuss and debate actionable strategies for creating mobile roadmaps that streamline operational efficiency and boost profits.

“A perfect mix of BUYERS, SELLERS and TRUE EXPERTS... Join us at RAMP!”
Kolja Reiss, Managing Director, Mopay

Adding depth and value to the event’s attendees, RAMP brings together the full spectrum of industry innovators from payment processors and platform providers to network operators and handset manufacturers and all of the emerging value added services that stand to catapult retailers to new revenue levels. Retailers, restaurants and manufacturers debate the pros and cons of location based services, comparison shopping tools and reward programs with the most cutting edge providers of these innovative applications.

Guided by an Advisory Board of Industry Greats, and supported by hundreds of leading executives spanning the entire industry ecosystem, RAMP delivers unparalleled value.

“If you're going to go to ONE CONFERENCE this year, or spend your marketing dollars on ONE EVENT, make sure THE MORRISSEY GROUP is running it.”

Scott Dueweke, Senior Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton

Additional RAMP Partners

Isis Grows Into Serious NFC Payment Contender

Isis has signed up all four major credit card providers to challenge Google on NFC payment technology

Three of the largest wireless carriers in the United States have joined Google, PayPal and others at the table for mobile payments based on near field communications (NFC) wireless technology.  Isis, a joint venture comprised of AT&T and Verizon Wireless, scored a major coup by becoming the first mobile payment provider to ink all four major credit card providers Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express for support in the United States.  (read more)

Merchant Warehouse Expands Product Line With Encrypted Swiped, Keyed and All-in-One Payment Devices

July 25, 2011 12:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

Integration With ID TECH Creates Another “Out-of-Scope” Secure Payment Solution

Latest release supports ID TECH’s secure line of encrypted card readers and will provide developers a streamlined process in bringing secure payment solutions to market

RSPA RetailNow Conference

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merchant Warehouse®, a premier provider of merchant accounts and credit card processing solutions, today announced the release of MerchantWARE ® 4.0, and the recently completed integration with ID TECH into the MerchantWARE ® suite of products. MerchantWARE 4.0 provides a streamlined integration process for point-of-sale (POS) developers and also includes complete support of ID TECH standard and enhanced versions of their SL Secure Line of products. MerchantWARE now supports ID TECH’s SecureKey™ M130 and SecureMag™ products, as well as Triple Data Encryption Standard (TDES) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) methods. MerchantWARE 4.0 and its integration with ID TECH will be demonstrated at Merchant Warehouse’s booth, No. 207, at the RSPA RetailNow Conference, July 24-27 in Orlando, Fla.

“Together we can deliver superior performance to our customers and bring another level of data security confidence to the market.”

With MerchantWARE 4.0, the new streamlined procedure means developers can find tailor-made integration processes with the click of a button. By further improving the already easy-to-use MerchantWARE integration process, developers can save time allowing them to bring secure payment solutions to market sooner.

ID TECH chose the MerchantWARE Payment Gateway as a preferred decryption service for its line of secure devices. The partnership allows merchants and POS developers to combine ID TECH’s encrypted card readers and keypads with MerchantWARE’s API to offer a robust end-to-end encryption solution. PA-DSS compliance is dramatically simplified for POS developers, often taking them “out-of-scope” for PA-DSS audits, and minimizes the complexity and costs of PCI compliance for merchants. By offering a payment solution where both swiped and keyed transactions are protected with end-to-end encryption, merchants can be assured that sensitive card data information is never “in the clear”.

“We are excited about our partnership with ID TECH, as it combines Merchant Warehouse’s secure payment solutions with ID TECH’s line of encrypted card readers,” said Henry Helgeson, co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse. “Together we can deliver superior performance to our customers and bring another level of data security confidence to the market.”

With the addition of the ID TECH line of devices, MerchantWARE has another “out-of-scope” payment solution for developers. This makes Merchant Warehouse one of the few payment solution providers that can offer more than one “out-of-scope” solution. MerchantWARE’s other “out-of-scope” solution is its Transport Platform™ which provides PA-DSS validated hosted payment solutions for all point-of-sale, ecommerce, shopping carts and SaaS environments.

“We are pleased and excited about this opportunity to partner with Merchant Warehouse. We believe MerchantWARE’s focus on bringing innovative and secure payment solutions to the market combined with ID TECH’s SL Secure Line products will provide merchants and developers everywhere with the best secure payment solutions possible,” said Yvonne Yong, product manager of ID TECH.

About Merchant Warehouse

Merchant Warehouse offers secure, award-winning payment processing solutions and merchant account services to merchants and partners nationwide. Since 1998, Merchant Warehouse has helped over 100,000 merchants securely process all forms of electronic payments. The company continues to lead the industry with groundbreaking technology initiatives: MerchantWARE^®; BINsmart™; and Transport Platform. Merchant Warehouse has been named the ETA 2009 ISO of the Year, Business Solutions’ Best Channel Vendorthree years in a row (2009-2011),the Best Channel Product for 2009 and 2011, is a four-time recipient of the Boston Business Journal Pacesetter Award and has been named to the Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies list the last four consecutive years and the Deloitte Fast 500 in 2010. Merchant Warehouse co-CEO, Henry Helgeson, was also named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 for New England. The company is committed to community and charitable involvement and maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. For more information, please visit merchantwarehouse.com or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MWarehouse. Visit their blogs at http://blog.merchantwaresolutions.com/and http://blog.merchantwarehouse.com/.

About ID TECH

ID TECH is a global leader in the Auto ID industry with sales, manufacturing and R&D facilities around the world. The company has become a well-established payment solutions provider with extensive experience in data capturing and encryption products and services. Designing dependable, feature-rich products has made ID TECH a leading supplier of MagStripe readers/writers, mobile payment readers, smart card readers, barcode readers, POS keyboards, signature capture devices, PCI-compliant PIN pads, and other specialty products for OEMs, VARs, resellers, distributors, and key end users. ID TECH provides both standard and custom solutions to support customer requirements. For more information about ID TECH, please call 1-800-984-1010 or visit http://www.idtechproducts.com/.

Would You Like to Make a Call? Consumers Say, No Thanks

CloudTalk Survey Finds Smart Phone Users Prefer Asynchronous Communication

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Would you believe making calls is not the first or even second thing consumers choose to do when using their mobile devices? How about that it ranks near the bottom of the top five smart phone uses? Believe it or not, that’s exactly the case. In an informal survey conducted by social communications platform, CloudTalk, the company found that the top five activities Americans engage in most on their smart phones include:

“Will live conversations via cell phone become extinct? Perhaps, but some other way to communicate with our voice will need to take its place. It is after all the most natural way we express ourselves.”

1. Texting / messaging – more than seven in 10

2. Emailing – nearly six in 10

3. Social networking – nearly 50%

4. Talking on the phone – 43%

5. Surfing the Web – about four in 10

For those talking less on their smart phones because they find phone calls to be too time-consuming or intrusive, how are they expressing themselves using these devices? Consumers who participated in the survey said they prefer texting or messaging (nearly nine in 10) over talking on the phone and dealing with voicemail. In fact, about half of the respondents had negative feelings toward both of these activities from finding calls to be too intrusive and just plain disliking live phone conversations to outright hatred toward voicemail.

“The results clearly indicate smart phones are primarily used as a communication device, but what’s really interesting is that it appears the intrusiveness of phone calls has forced talking to take a back seat to more convenient modes of communication, such as text messaging,” said David Hayden, chairman and CEO of CloudTalk. “What we’re seeing at CloudTalk is that people love to talk, as long as, (like text messaging), it doesn’t require our immediate attention, we can respond on our own time and see the entire conversation thread at a glance – it’s just more convenient.”

We also asked survey participants what the ultimate super communications app would look like if they could create it themselves. The following are the top five most desired features:

1. Texting or messaging – nearly nine in 10

2. Multimedia content sharing – about 70%

3. Maps and directions – nearly seven in 10

4. VOIP – More than half

5. Private group chat – nearly 50%

“With the quick deployment of new applications and mobile technology and the constant evolution of consumer behavior, it will be interesting to poll consumers again in a few months time to see how the results differ,” continued Hayden. “Will live conversations via cell phone become extinct? Perhaps, but some other way to communicate with our voice will need to take its place. It is after all the most natural way we express ourselves.”

About CloudTalk

CloudTalk is the only social platform to integrate asynchronous voice as well as text, photo and video sharing all in one message for a more interactive experience that is similar to the way we communicate in real life. The CloudTalk platform enables companies to automatically integrate voice, text and multimedia sharing capabilities into their Web or mobile communications offerings, providing both monetary and time-to-market advantages. The CloudTalk app is free and delivers a rich communication experience enabling both public and private interactions with your social circle wherever you are and is available for iOS, (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and Android OS. The company is based in San Francisco, Calif. and was founded in April 2009. For more information, visit www.cloudtalk.com and follow the company on Twitter at @CloudTalking or join the community conversation at @CloudTalkMe.

About the Survey

This survey was conducted informally by CloudTalk via social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and CloudTalk’s own community on the CloudTalk app. The more than 100 survey participants were entered into a drawing for a chance to win a CloudTalk t-shirt and $50 iTunes gift card. The winners were announced via social media and notified via email the week of July 11.

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