Vivotech to Abandon NFC Terminal Business

No new business lead by start-ups ever seems to reach fullness and fruition with some failures. So it is that contactless reader and NFC software vendor Vivotech has become an early casualty of the contactless mobile payment business.

NFC Times reports that the firm plans to cease operations and sell at least some of its assets. Sources say Vivotech is in talks to sell its reader business to PAX Global Technology, owner of Shenzhen, China-based PAX Technology, a maker of point-of-sale terminals. 


Vivotech’s software business, though, might be retained.

Some would argue that Vivotech simply was too early, a common problem when whole new industries are being born.

In part, the problem seems to have been that the original business was built around sales of NFC-capable terminals, but that point-of-sale business has suffered from margin compression.

Software and services used for payments and other features, such as tracking and redeeming mobile offers, now are viewed as adding more value.

Vivotech had shipped nearly one million terminals globally over the past several years.