Google Wallet Acquires TxVia

Over the past few months, things have not being going so well for Google Wallet but in just one day the mobile payment system took one step backward followed by another one forward. For the bad news first, Google engineer Rob von Behren who is said to be one of the two Google employees responsible for the creation of Google Wallet’s NFC payment system, left the company to join up with rival mobile payment firm, Square. According to AndroidCommunity, the reason for his leaving the company could be for low adoption among retailers, security concerns, or increased pressure (because of the previous two reasons) from credit card/mobile operator backed ISIS program.

Now for the good news, Google Wallet acquired TxVia, a company that specialized in electronic payment systems earlier today. The general assumption is that the acquisition is more about personnel that it is about technology but TxVia has been around and should bring with it sufficient experience in this relatively new field. While Google has not mentioned how it intends to use TxVia’s technology except for enhancements to the current Google Wallet, all five of TxVia’s managing partners have allegedly been given positions at Google.