       |
|

ViVOtech
Secures Strategic Investment from Citi To Develop Innovative Mobile
Commerce Technologies
Santa
Clara CA – February 12, 2008 – ViVOtech Inc.,
an acknowledged leader in Contactless and Near Field Communication
(NFC) mobile phone payment and promotion technologies, today announced
that it has secured an equity investment from Citi (NYSE: C). Financial
terms of the deal were not disclosed.
ViVOtech mobile
infrastructure software has been constructed for collaboration across
the entire payment ecosystem including banks, merchants, mobile
operators and service providers to their customers. The resulting
technology forms the foundation for a range of new customer payment,
loyalty and promotion services, including personalized discounts
and incentives, and faster and convenient transaction experience
at the checkout.
“We look
forward to working with Citi to continue driving the innovation
and technologies that are moving mobile commerce from vision to
reality,” said Michael Mullagh, CEO, ViVOtech. “NFC
mobile technologies are connecting banks, merchants, and mobile
carriers with their customers anywhere, anytime. Through our collaboration
with Citi, we anticipate improving the customer experience –
from how they shop, make payments, and enjoy personalized promotions
using their mobile phones.”
Citi is committed
to delivering leading-edge banking and payment solutions to its
customers and helping to define the mobile and contactless future.
ViVOtech understands how to deliver integrated and secure mobile
capabilities that meet consumers’ needs. The combination of
ViVOtech’s industry leading capabilities with Citi’s
global reach is a big step in enabling the development of the mobile
financial services ecosystem.
"As our
customers’ everyday lives change, Citi seeks to meet their
evolving needs by transforming consumer financial services through
new ventures and innovations, particularly in the mobile payments
and financial applications space,” said Jaidev Shergill, EVP,
Growth Ventures and Innovation, Citi. “Our investment in ViVOtech
demonstrates our commitment to leverage emerging technology and
opportunities to offer our customers greater speed, simplicity,
convenience, and security.”
Near
Field Communication (NFC) technology is a short-range wireless connectivity
that enable mobile devices to interact with Contactless systems
for a wide variety of transactions, including those at the point-of-sale,
smart posters, ATMs and kiosks. A recent report from Juniper Research
forecasts that by 2011, around 12% of the total mobile phones in
circulation will offer support for contactless payment, specifically
NFC – equating to nearly 470 million NFC-enabled handsets
worldwide.
About
ViVOtech
ViVOtech is the market leader in Near Field Communication (NFC)
mobile payments, promotions, and over the air (OTA) provisioning
infrastructure software, NFC smart posters, and Contactless terminals.
These innovative solutions allow millions of consumers to make Contactless
payments with radio frequency-enabled credit/debit cards, fobs,
and NFC mobile phones. ViVOtech's products are used by the most
prominent retailers all over the world. With more than 360,000 units
deployed in 29 countries, ViVOtech products are used at movie theaters,
fast food restaurants (QSR), casual dining establishments, convenience
stores, gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores, buses, taxicabs,
kiosks and vending machines, enabling a wide variety of businesses
to accept Contactless/NFC payments and promotions. For more information
about ViVOtech’s investors and innovative solutions please
visit http://www.vivotech.com.
Images
of ViVOtech technology can be viewed here: http://www.vivotech.com/newsroom/picture_gallery.asp
Media
Contacts:
Kristin Miller
SSPR for ViVOtech
+1-719-634-8292
kmiller@sspr.com
Samuel
Wang
Citigroup
Global Consumer Group Public Affairs
+1-212-559-0499
wangs@citi.com
|