Visa has agreed to acquire virtual goods monetization platform PlaySpan for $190 million in real life cash. The $190 million is the first payment, with additional payouts to follow for PlaySpan reaching certain milestones. Visa says this deal will compliment their previous acquisition of the CyberSource e-payment company for $2 billion and will extend their presence in the digital and mobile commerce.
PlaySpan has raised almost $50 million in funding since their launch four years ago. They have forged partnerships with the likes of Viacom, Disney, Facebook, Ubisoft, and Sanrio. Their flagship product UltimatePlay recently launched a mobile version which allows developers to easily incorporate virtual goods into their.
PlaySpan’s flagship product UltimatePay is a ‘Monetization as a Service’ platform for apps, games, videos and digital goods. Based on the user’s location, the payments platform draws from over 85 different payment options. Because of its vast variety of payment options (which include PayPal, pre-paid cards, and a number of credit cards), UltimatePay is designed for a global audience. Currently, PlaySpan powers virtual goods marketplaces across 1,000 video games, virtual world publishers and social networks.
eCommerce sales is big business for Visa. PlaySpan will help Visa capitalize on the growing digital goods market, which generated an estimated $25 billion in consumer spending globally in 2010 and is expected to reach $280 billion by 20143.
via TechCrunch, PlaySpan