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Banking, finance, and taxes

Groupon Goes After Square in Mobile Payments

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By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
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Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) is getting into the business of mobile payments for small merchants. The move is to compete with Square, which just received a valuation of more than $3 billion, and other mobile payment processing firms. The launch is called GrouponPayments for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The aim is to compete on price and in size. Groupon will charge $0.15 per successful swipe. It will also charge 1.8% for Visa and Mastercard and 3% for American Express. Any merchant that runs a deal with Groupon in the United States can now accept payments at the lowest rates available. Merchants also can use the app to scan and redeem Groupons and monitor additional spent over the value of the Groupon.

The firm said that merchants also will have their credit card deposits in their bank accounts overnight.

Groupon shares are trading higher by 7.5% at $5.05, but we would note that the post-IPO trading range has been $4.00 to $31.14. Groupon’s market cap is about $31.4 billion, according to Yahoo! Finance.

JON C. OGG

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About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.

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