MasterCard Acquires DataCash

MasterCard announced today that it has acquired DataCash, a UK-based payments service provider (PSP), for $520 million. A webcast for investors, and supporting presentation are also available. The corresponding DataCash announcement is here.

This gateway acquisition will bolster MasterCard efforts in the global eCommerce market, where the company's current offering, the MasterCard Internet Gateway Service (MiGS), has seen some success in emerging markets. Early this year, Visa made a similar acquisition of CyberSource.