Visa International trumped Mastercard’s £233 million offer today for a small British fintech with a £247 million counter-bid, in a battle likened to two walruses squabbling over a shrimp. Visa announced that it was offering 37p per share for Earthport, a London-based crossborder payments processor with promising technology: 12 per cent higher than Mastercard’s 33p per share. By late afternoon trading in London today shares in Earthport had surged by nearly 14 per cent, or 5½p, to 44.10p as traders speculated that Mastercard might respond with a higher offer still. Mastercard issued an immediate statement saying that it was “considering its options” and urging Earthport shareholders to take no action. The bidding war between the two giants of global payments processing, which weigh in with…

Source: The Times February 08, 2019 12:05 UTC