Buyout: Cards Off Buys FranceSoir.fr

• The e-payment start-up Cards Off has just purchases FranceSoir.fr. Their initial 120,000 euros offer was rejected last July, and the buyout has been set at 510,000 euros.

• Paris Commercial Court made its decision on 9 October.

• Cards Off intends to change Francesoir.fr into a merchant gallery where to highlight its own online payment system.

Source: Les Echos

• Cards Off was founded in 2005 and listed in October 2007; it focuses on payment upon delivery, and has been granted PI status in June 2011. Its business core relies on online transactions security, regardless of the means of payment. As trusted third party and dealing with the entire e-commerce value chain, it ensures reliability of all involved parties (merchants, customers, delivery companies and banks) and upholds both national and European ambitions.

• Cards Off has the entire online buying process in charge (from order to delivery) and, unlike some of its rivals, frees itself from the use of payment cards (for instance, to fight fraud). The subscriber would use his dedicated identifiers to make purchases at partner websites. The amount is stored on a “temporary” account and unlocked once his order received.

• Paris Commercial Court ordered France Soir’s compulsory liquidation last July. The daily newspaper stopped releasing paper copies in December 2011, and only kept sustaining its online version until then.