Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) today begins the rollout of its ambitious mobile purchase and payment service known as Apple Pay. The company has tapped a number of retailers and financial institutions to support the service. However, giant retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) are not part of the Apple Pay network. Nonetheless, over 220,000 stores including Whole Foods, Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG) and MacDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) are participating in it.
Credit-card networks such as Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) are part of the Apple’s mobile payment. The Apple Pay service makes use of what is known as near-field communication, which is supported by iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus but not the older devices.
Analysts estimate that the revenue from Apple Pay is likely to come in the region of $118 million by 2015 and about $310 million by 2016. Additionally, analysts expect the mobile wallet to increase the demand for Apple devices.
Although Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is trying to put the woes inherited from the financial crisis of 2008 behind it, such efforts had a negative impact on profits in the latest quarter. The bank earned a profit of just about $168 million in its 3Q2014, compared with a profit of $2.5 billion in the like quarter a year earlier. When dividend payment is taken into account, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) suffered a net loss of $0.01. Wall Street expected a net loss of $0.09 for the quarter.
Nonetheless, the bank likes it that it is reducing its legal headache to clear the way for growth. It recently agreed to pay $16.65 billion to settle some sour mortgage issues as part of the clearing the way.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) paid more for the acquisition of WhatsApp than it negotiated. Although the world’s biggest social network agreed to pay $16.90 billion to purchase WhatsApp, a closer look at the deal after it closed reveals that Facebook actually paid about $21.8 billion for the acquisition. An additional $2 billion or so in the acquisition value arose from delays to close the deal during which time the stock of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) gained. The deal involved cash and stock, but the cash component was smaller compared with stock.
