eCash Technologies Inc., which began as an Internet innovator with a sophisticated encryption-based cash system, has been purchased by InfoSpace Inc.
Before the sale, eCash, of Bothell, Wash., was a reincarnation of the Dutch company Digicash Inc., which was founded by the cryptographer David Chaum and got a lot of attention in the late 1990s but ultimately went bankrupt.
Digicash had offered a privacy-oriented electronic-cash product. The entrepreneurs who bought its patents and assets used them to create eCash, which processed a variety of transactions, including debit, prepaid, business-to-business, and person-to-person.
InfoSpace, of Bellevue, Wash., is primarily known for reselling white-pages telephone directory information on the Internet but also processes credit card and electronic-check purchases through its Authorize.Net payment gateway. InfoSpace said these services are used by 120,000 merchants.
In the virtual space, debit is a challenge because of the security concerns, said Prakash Kondepudi, the executive vice president of merchant services at InfoSpace, but we see an opportunity to expedite e-debit.
The eCash sale was announced Feb. 19. The price was not disclosed.
