Earlier this year it was reported that Samsung had acquired LoopPay, a company whose technology was used to go on and form Samsung Pay, which is basically Samsung’s answer to Apple Pay. Unfortunately back then it was not disclosed as to how much Samsung paid for the company, but according to the folks at Re/code, it was a rather hefty sum in the tune of $250 million.
Unsurprisingly neither Samsung nor LoopPay offered to confirm the figure which we guess is probably kept confidential for competitive reasons. For those unfamiliar with LoopPay, the company basically designed a special piece of hardware, such as a fob or a smartphone case, that allowed customers to pay for their purchases using their phone by swiping against the credit card terminal.
However when Samsung acquired the company, they then embedded the technology into their phones – the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, ultimately allowing it to be used as a mobile payments device without the need for extra accessories. This resulted in the creation of Samsung Pay which we expect will compete with the likes of Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and even PayPal.
Samsung Pay has yet to be officially released but according to a report from last month, the service is expected to go live in the second half of 2015. Whether or not it will be able to compete with existing mobile payments services remains to be seen, but hopefully Samsung will be able to get something out of the $250 million they invested in it.
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