Apple Pay Rival MCX, Visa Loom At PayPal Analyst Day
Delays and staff cuts at Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a mobile payments consortium, will likely boost Apple Pay, while PayPal ( PYPL ) management’s view on MCX’s woes should be a hot topic at PayPal’s analyst day on Wednesday. MCX said Tuesday it will cut 30 jobs and again delay the launch of its mobile app , a potential rival of Apple ( AAPL ) Pay and others. MCX has been courting retailers, Apple, Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google, PayPal, Samsung, Visa ( V ) and others in the mobile payments space. Wal-Mart ( WMT ) has been MCX’s main backer. PayPal will be hosting its first analyst day following its 2015 spinoff from eBay ( EBAY ) last year. The event will be held in San Jose, Calif. PayPal recently launched its redesigned mobile app, which works on Apple iPhones and Android-based devices, in 145 countries. While Apple and MCX were rivals, PayPal has aimed to partner with different players in mobile payments. PayPal in March 2015 acquired Paydiant, which had close ties to MCX and retailers. MCX had aimed to reduce the clout of credit card firms in the nascent mobile payments business, analysts say. Prior to the latest MCX announcement, Citigroup analyst Ashwin Shirvaikar said in a research report that PayPal’s relationship with Visa and MasterCard ( MA ) was one area of interest heading into its analyst day. At Jefferies, analyst Jason Kupferberg was also hoping for an update on Visa. “PayPal’s relationship with Visa remains a topic of interest for the Street, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there is limited commentary at the analyst day on this topic, given ongoing negotiations,” Kupferberg wrote in a report. Prior to the eBay spinoff, PayPal acquired Braintree, a mobile payment service, and Venmo, a hybrid mobile payment app and social network for millennials. Daniel Perlin, an analyst at RBC Capital, expects mobile to be a big theme at PayPal’s analyst day. “We believe management will outline its plans to shift from its legacy e-commerce platform into a leading mobile-first platform for payments, with its Braintree asset being front and center.”