Ingenico said active U.S. of seeking Hypercom

By Olga Kharif

(Bloomberg) - Ingenico, a French manufacturer of payment terminals, is in talks to acquire the assets of U.S. Hypercom Corp., him giving a most important foot in North America, three people with knowledge of the negotiations, said.

Persons who have requested not be identified, because the transaction is public, has refused to discuss how Ingenico could pay. ViVOtech Inc., a rival manufacturer of payment technology, said yesterday that he is also interested in the assets.

Ingenico would use Hypercom operations to extend to the United States, where companies such as Google Inc. are about to begin testing mobile payment services. This technology would allow shoppers to pay for things to extraction using cash or credit card physical phones. In 2014, mobile payment systems will handle 245 billion of global transactions, up to 32 billion in 2010, according to Gartner Inc. studies firm.

The assets of the U.S. are for sale because they coincide with those of VeriFone Systems Inc., which announced its intention to acquire Hypercom for 485 million in November. VeriFone aims to consolidate its operations in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and other European markets where Hypercom is more established. The companies expect the agreement to close in the second half of 2011.

Pete Schuddekopf, a spokesman for Hypercom, refused to comment, as did Leah Roscoe, vice President of global marketing for VeriFone. Remi Calvet, a spokesman for Ingenico, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Hypercom fell 24 cents to $12.03 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Ingenico climbed €1.22 31.60 to € Paris trade, while VeriFone based in San Jose, California has dropped $1.89, or 3.3%, to $54.95.

Ingenico - located in Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside Paris - attempted to buy Hypercom in 2008, only to see the agreement through the fall. Hypercom, based in Scottsdale, Arizona), had sales of $ 126 million in the region of the Americas last year, 27% of its total income.

ViVOtech, a startup based in Santa Clara, California, said yesterday in a statement that he approached VeriFone on the purchase of assets. ViVOtech specializes in a technology called near field communications, which allows people to make payments by selecting a phone against a system of Fund.

"We believe that they have good technology, good people,"Mullagh Mick ViVOtech, Director General, said in an interview."

Kharif is a reporter for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek in Portland, Oregon.

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