FleetCor has announced that it has acquired the UK and Ireland fuel card businesses of Retail Decisions (ReD). The acquisition includes all of ReD’s fuel card operations in the UK and Ireland, including ReD’s network of UK fuel bunkering outlets. READ MORE

Retail Decisions reports that the "online retail market received a double dose of good news as merchants kicked-off the 2007 Holiday season. Purchase value of goods sold on Black Friday was up 83% and on Cyber Monday was up 80% year on year."

Retail Decisions reports that online volumes surged 109% on a like for like basis on Black Friday. According to ReD, most online shoppers waited until the afternoon to begin their shopping. The peak shopping hour was between 3:00PM - 4:00PM and the peak shopping minute was 2:53PM.

According to a Reuters report, Retail Decisions Plc said yesterday it had agreed to a $314 million cash offer from RD Card Ltd, a private firm set up by Palamon Capital Partners.

Ben Harrington reports for the UK's Daily Telegraph on reports that Wright Express has entered the bidding to acquire Retail Decisions. Harrington also reports that Comdata and FleetCor as well as a private equity firm may be among other potential bidders for Retail Decisions.

According to a statement released yesterday, Retail Decisions says that "it has received an increased indicative proposal which may or may not lead to an offer being made to purchase the entire share capital of the Company. The Company has also received a number of other unsolicited approaches from third parties. In view of these events, the Board of Retail Decisions has concluded that it should engage in discussions with bona fide potential offerors in order to assess if an acceptable offer will be forthcoming."

First Data Corp. has announced an affiliation with Retail Decisions to provide an enhanced fraud detection solution for First Data's global online merchants.

Retail Decisions (ReD) has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office has stated that it will re-examine the granting of US patent 6,029,154 that is the subject of an infringement claim by CyberSource against Retail Decisions.

The USPTO’s decision is in response to a re-examination request submitted by ReD, following the discovery (by ReD) of “prior art” that pre-dates the Cybersource patent.

US Patent 6,029,154, titled "Method and system for detecting fraud in a credit card transaction over the internet", was filed by inventor John Pettitt on July 28, 1997 and issued on February 22, 2000.