September 29, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Internet research and reporting firm Netcraft (netcraft.com) reported on Wednesday that recent events have caused considerable uncertainty in the business of processing online credit card transactions for Web site operators.
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Credit card processor PaySystems abruptly cancelled its third-party processing services last month, and Authorize.net faced service downtime as a result of a distributed denial of service attack launched last week.
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Matters have become more confused, as auction site operator Care Concepts Inc. retracted its offer to acquire IBill, the payment processor owned by Penthouse International, though the companies say they still hope to complete the deal later.
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Care Concepts agreed in August to buy iBill from Penthouse for $55 million, contingent on a review by the American Stock Exchange. On September 20, the exchange said it would de-list Care Concepts stock due to concerns over the iBill deal.
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Those concerns arose after a judge denied an emergency motion to force First Data Bank to continue processing iBill’s credit card transactions, a motion that iBill said was necessary to save the business from immediate collapse.
