AisleBuyer, a mobile payments solution provider that focuses on making in-store shopping on mobile devices easy for retailers to implement, was acquired by ecommerce heavyweight Intuit in a deal this week, the terms of which were not disclosed. Intuit was initially interested in entering into a partnership with AisleBuyer, but determined that the smaller company made more sense as an acquisition target in the long run, Intuit spokesperson Sharna Brockett told BetaKit in an interview.
The purchase made sense to Intuit because of the common goals held by the two companies. “Intuit and AisleBuyer share a common vision to deliver a robust mobile point of sale offering to small businesses,” Brockett said. It’s a vision held by many competitors and other startups, too, including Revel, Square and a whole host of others, so it isn’t surprising to see publicly-traded Intuit make a strong play in that direction, since it also competes with PayPal and Square with its own GoPayment mobile credit card smartphone dongle and software.
The AisleBuyer purchase will help Intuit transition GoPayment, as well as its existing point-of-sale solutions, to the cloud, Brockett said, as well as help Intuit open up its POS offerings to third-party developers for integration with other solutions on the market. Revel talked about how its open API is one of its key selling features, and this move signals that industry veterans are recognizing those opportunities as well.
While Intuit is keen on keen on integrating AisleBuyer tech into its own offerings, the company isn’t planning on taking away anything that attracted AisleBuyer users to the startup to begin with. “For AisleBuyer customers, it is business as usual – their service will not be interrupted and will continue to provide the great service and support they are used to,” Brockett told BetaKit.
With Intuit opening its wallet in search of fresh tech and talent, expect others to follow as the mobile payments market catches fire. Verifone already acquired Point earlier this year, and eBay made numerous strategic payment company purchases in 2011, including online ecommerce provider Magento and Zong, a mobile payments company that deals in carrier billing.
As the acquisitions build up, expect fresh companies to crop up like weeds, too. Mobile payments are expected to become a $940 billion industry by 2015 according to new research from KPMG, so there should be plenty of room for both established and new players to see heady paydays in the market.
