Rumor: Google Potentially Looking To Buy Softcard For Under $100 Million

When the world of mobile payments just started to hit the scene, Google was more or less pioneering a new feature with the introduction of Google Wallet. Although sadly it didn’t catch on as rapidly or as vastly as we had hoped, at least not in the Google Wallet form. This in part could have been due to the decision of carriers choosing to forego the offering of supporting Google Wallet, and instead supporting their own system which was then known as ISIS Mobile Wallet. Not too long after news started appearing about the ISIS extremist group, ISIS promptly changed their name to Softcard, and it’s that company which Google may now be in talks to potentially purchase.

According to Tech Crunch who seems to have first reported on this story, unnamed sources state that Google could be looking to add Softcard to their list of companies to own. Whether or not it pans out is unknown, but if Google did buy up Softcard it would certainly put them in line to have support at POS systems within carriers throughout the country, and that would likely cause a huge jump for Google Wallet too.

Other unconfirmed details at this point are the purchase price, which is stated as being potentially under $100 million, and the fact that Google may be buying Softcard with the intention of merely gathering up the patents and carrier relationships. At one point in time Google was making a push to get its Google Wallet platform supported by the carriers, but the carriers banded together and created their own platform to use instead, so we know Google at least at one point in time, had an interest in having Google Wallet as a payment option within major US carrier stores. It stands to reason that they could want nothing more to do with Softcard than their patents for improving or enhancing their own technology, as well as finally have a way in with the carriers that currently support Softcard. For now these are just rumors until Google or Softcard gives the confirmation, but this is definitely something to keep on the radar as this could really drive forward the Google Wallet platform adoption.

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