Businessweek

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is looking for acquisitions. Charlie Scharf, the Chief Executive Officer of Visa Inc. said in a telecom conference, “We look at acquisitions. What I'd say is you should expect us to continue to look at the types of things that we have looked at, which are relatively small buying capabilities whether it is development capabilities or product capabilities such as Fundamo, but albeit relatively small. And that leaves the majority for the dividend, which we are comfortable at the level that it is, and would continue -- expect to continue to increase it at a reasonable rate and -- but return most of the excess capital to shareholders through repurchases at this point.”

Visa Inc. announced a processing enhancement for Visa Offers, a solution that enables Visa issuers, acquirers and merchants of all sizes to deliver targeted rewards to Visa cardholders. The enhanced service has the potential to eliminate paper coupons, allowing consumers, who opt in, to earn points and discounts as well as redeem special offers instantly at checkout by simply using their enrolled Visa card. The platform supports Visa's commitment to offer solutions for retailer and financial institution clients of any size that allows them to deliver customized and differentiated benefits to Visa cardholders at the point-of-sale. Visa's payments processing network, VisaNet, enables the efficient delivery of these offers that can enhance the consumer checkout experience, increase merchant sales and strengthen issuer relationships. The new capabilities include: fully Customizable Offer ContentRetailers and financial institutions can deliver offers that are tailored to individual customers, through email, web and mobile. For example, a clothing retailer could deliver a personalized text message or email to customers who have opted in to the program while they are shopping nearby; real-time Offer Relevancy The platform also provides retailers and issuers data insights and analytics to measure the point-of-sale redemption rate, allowing them to create customized and more relevant offers; consumer Loyalty Qualification Through the enhancement of the Visa Offers platform, retailers and issuers can use real-time messaging capabilities to identify and uniquely reward loyal customers; multiple Redemption Options Enhancements to the Visa Offers platform include support for real-time redemption of offers and rewards at the point-of-sale. This complements the existing statement credit capability; support for Multiple Offers Programs The Visa Offers platform supports both Visa-specific and third-party offer programs to help drive incremental purchases and a faster, more seamless checkout experience for consumers, who provide their consent.

SmartMetric Inc. announced that SmartMetric's Patent infringement litigation against Visa and MasterCard based on its issued "464" patent that covers data cards (smart cards) is claiming $13.4 billion collectively from Visa and MasterCard in damages and paid up royalties. After a number of years before the court, two Markmen hearings and a successful appeal to the United States Federal Appeals Court in Washington DC, Ms. Chaya Hendrick said that the company is looking forward to having its case heard before a trial by jury on September 9th, 2013.

Visa Inc. announced unaudited consolidated earnings results for the second quarter and six months ended March 31, 2013. For the quarter, the company reported total operating revenues of $2,958 million against $2,578 million a year ago. Operating income was $1,860 million against $1,606 million a year ago. Income before income taxes was $1,857 million against $1,609 million a year ago. Net income attributable to the company was $1,270 million or $1.92 per Class A diluted common stock, $1.81 per Class B basic and diluted common stock, $1.92 per Class C diluted common stock against $1,292 million or $1.91 per Class A diluted common stock, $1.81 per Class B diluted common stock, $1.91 per Class C diluted common stock a year ago. Net operating revenue increased by 15% over the prior year, driven by strong growth in service revenues, data processing revenues and international transaction revenues. Operating margin for the quarter was 63%. Capital expenditures were $111 million in the quarter and continue to be in line with full year expectations. For the six months, the company reported total operating revenues of $5,804 million against $5,125 million a year ago. Operating income was $3,660 million against $3,224 million a year ago. Income before income taxes was $3,658 million against $3,226 million a year ago. Net income attributable to the company was $2,563 million or $3.86 per Class A diluted common stock, $1.62 per Class B diluted common stock, $3.86 per Class C diluted common stock against $2,321 million or $3.40 per Class A diluted common stock, $1.55 per Class B diluted common stock, $3.40 per Class C diluted common stock a year ago. Net cash used in operating activities of $1,180 million against net cash provided by operating activities of $2,383 million a year ago. Purchases of property, equipment, technology and intangible assets were $211 million against $162 million a year ago. The company provided earnings guidance for the fiscal 2013. For the year, the company expects adjusted annual diluted class A common stock earnings per share growth of around 20%. Annual net revenue growth to be in low double digits, marketing expenses to be under $1 billion, annual operating margin to be about 60%, tax rate to be in the range of 30% to 32%, capital expenditures to be in the range of $425 million to $475 million and annual free cash flow to be about $6 billion.

SmartMetric Inc. announced that its patent infringement litigation against Visa Inc. and Mastercard Incorporated is based on its issued "464" patent that covers data cards. The patent in question covers the use of data cards (smart cards) that are inserted into a reader that subsequently causes a connection to one of a multiple of networks. It has been wrongly thought that the patent is only restricted to SmartMetric's biometric activated smart cards. This is not the case, Ms. Chaya Hendrick. The patent in question is much broader and is not restricted to only Biometric Cards. It covers any kind of smart card including the banking industry's EMV Card used around the World that is in effect a "smart card." SmartMetric has already had two markmen hearings in which the term data card has been clearly defined to cover "smart cards" therefore the question of whether the company's issued Patent covers banking "smart cards" is a settled point at law.