STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Several corporate suitors are apparently interested in making a match with EMMA, Cash Technologies' new transaction processing platform.by Ann All, editor
January 10, 2000
According to a report published in Business Week, at least two different companies are interested in buying part or all of Cash Technologies Inc., a Los Angeles-based e-commerce and financial transaction company. According to the magazine, one of the interested parties is an ATM manufacturer and the other is a "major financial services company." In its most recent 10Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Cash Tech indicated that it is in negotiations for either a merger or sale of the company. Cash Technologies CEO Bruce Korman, noting that he could only discuss what his company had disclosed publicly in its SEC filing, confirmed that Cash Tech has been approached by two companies. "Everything else is rumor," he said. However, Korman said Cash Tech's EMMA (E-Commerce Message Management Architecture) platform, which Cash Tech calls "the first practical solution for the implementation of e-commerce transactions on ATMs and other financial transaction kiosks," makes his company attractive to corporate suitors. "ATM manufacturers all have these Windows NT, WOSA/XFS-based machines. They all have the capability of offering non-traditional components, except for one little detail -- there's no network to plug it into," Korman said. He said EMMA facilitates communication between banking networks -- including ATM networks, POS/credit card networks and the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network -- and non-banking networks, including the Internet. EMMA can recognize and route different types of transactions, including those not carried by an EFT network. "It knows when it acquires a transaction where it has to route that transaction for authorization," Korman said. "The intelligence is on the host." Cash Tech recently announced an agreement with MP3.com, Inc., which offers a collection of digital music on the Internet, and Sensar, Inc., a leading manufacturer of iris recognition products, to pilot the use of ATM cards to purchase MP3.com music products on the Internet. The pilot will utilize the EMMA transaction processing system and Sensar's iris recognition devices. Cash Tech and Sensar will host a demonstration of the technology at the BAI Retail Delivery in Miami Beach Dec. 7-9.
