Samsung Acquires Payments Startup to Compete With Apple Pay

Samsung thinks it has found its Apple Pay competitor, and it’s acquiring the startup to make sure no one gets access to it.

The giant phone maker said on Wednesday it has acquired LoopPay, a U.S.-based company whose technology transmits payments to retail store systems without having to swipe a card. The technology can store and mimic a card swipe, making acceptance easier for merchants since most don’t have to swap out their systems.

Re/code broke the news in December that the companies were in talks to embed LoopPay’s technology into the latest Samsung phones.

Since the technology mimics a card swipe, it works in theory in far more locations than Apple Pay or Google Wallet, which require stores to upgrade their equipment to include a technology called near field communication, or NFC. But when Walt Mossberg reviewed LoopPay last year, it didn’t work at three of the 13 stores he tested it at.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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