Authorize.Net

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Authorize.Net
CyberSource (Visa)
Websitewww.authorize.net

Authorize.Net, A Visa Solution is a United States-based

electronic check payments through their website and over an Internet Protocol (IP) connection. Founded in 1996 as Authorize.Net, Inc., the company is now a subsidiary of Visa Inc. Its service permits customers to enter credit card and shipping information directly onto a web page, in contrast to some alternatives that require the customer to sign up for a payment service before performing a transaction.[1]

History

Original logo of Authorize.Net
Original logo of Authorize.Net

Authorize.Net was founded in 1996, in Utah, by Jeff Knowles.[2] As of 2004, it had about 90,000 customers.[3]

Authorize.Net was one of several companies acquired by

Go2Net, a company backed by Microsoft founder Paul Allen, in 1999,[4] for US$90.5 million in cash and stock.[5] Go2Net was acquired by InfoSpace in 2000 for about $4 billion;[6] Authorize.Net was acquired by Lightbridge in 2004 for $82 million[3][7] and then by CyberSource in 2007.[2]

Visa Inc. acquired CyberSource in 2010 for $2 billion.[8][2] Visa has maintained Authorize.Net and Cybersource as separate services,[9] with Authorize.Net concentrating on small- to medium-sized businesses and Cybersource concentrating on international and large-scale payment processing.[10] At the time of the 2010 acquisition, the company's CEO identified three priorities: expanding the ecommerce market, enhancing fraud detection and prevention, and improving data security.[11] As of 2014, along with parent CyberSource, it had about 450,000 customers.[12]

Outages

In September 2004, Authorize.Net's servers were hit by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.[13] The DDoS attack lasted for over one week and caused a virtual shut down of the payment gateway's service. The attackers demanded money from Authorize.net in exchange for stopping the attack.

On July 2, 2009, at 11:00 pm PST, the entire web infrastructure for Authorize.Net (main website, merchant gateway website, etc.) went offline and stayed down all morning July 3, 2009.[14][15] None of the over 200,000 merchants who used Authorize.Net payment gateway at the time were able to process credit cards. Authorize.Net's phone numbers were closed July 3 because of the July 4th holiday as previously announced on their website (though the website was down at the time).[16] Other companies that have nearby offices have reported to the media that there was a fire.[14] Authorize.net started a Twitter account that morning, but did not update their phones to give notice to customers until July 5 when they reopened phones.[17]

Services

Authorize.Net processes

application programming interface (API) and software development kits for Android and iOS.[19]
Its virtual terminal and invoice features can process manual payments. It also offers recurring billing and a plugin for the integration with Authorize.Net, and technical support is available for merchants.

Authorize.Net has the most customers of any payment processor[20] and has been described as one of the more senior players in the payment processing industry, retaining a "decent portion" of the industry's market share.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Rowinski, Dan (June 28, 2017). "5 Tips To Make Digital Payments Easier For Ecommerce". Arc. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Murdock, Kerry (April 22, 2010). "Visa to Acquire CyberSource, Authorize.Net". Practical Ecommerce.
  3. ^ a b "Hack Attack Gums Up Authorize.Net". Wired.com. September 21, 2004. Archived from the original on September 23, 2004.
  4. ^ Brown, Erika (May 29, 2000). "Cautious Hunter". Forbes.
  5. ^ "Go2Net Acquires Authorize.Net For $90.5 Million in Cash, Stock". Wall Street Journal. July 1, 1999.
  6. ^ "InfoSpace Pays $4 Bil for Go2Net". Wired. July 26, 2000.
  7. ^ "Lightbridge acquires Authorize.Net for $82M". Boston Business Journal. March 1, 2004.
  8. ^ Bray, Hiawatha (June 19, 2007). "Calif. rival to buy Authorize.Net for $565m". Boston Globe.
  9. ^ Rao, Leena (February 22, 2013). "Visa Debuts New Mobile Payments And NFC Partner Program For Merchants And Developers, Ready". TechCrunch.
  10. ^ Mitroff, Sarah (October 17, 2012). "Braintree Seeks Online Payment Domination". Wired.
  11. ^ "CyberSource CEO Addresses Visa's Acquisition". Practical Ecommerce. May 4, 2010.
  12. ^ "Cybersource Enables ApplePay, Visa Checkout and PayPal". PMNTS.com. November 4, 2014.
  13. ^ "Hack Attack Gums Up Authorize.Net". Wired.com. 2004-09-21. Archived from the original on 2004-09-23. Retrieved 2004-09-21.
  14. ^
    Seattle Times
  15. ^ "Fisher Communications, Inc. Issues Statement Following an Electrical Fire at Fisher Plaza East". Archived from the original on 2009-07-06. Retrieved 2009-07-06.
  16. ^ https://account.authorize.net/UI/themes/MintAnnouncement.htm. Retrieved July 6, 2009. See "24 June 2009" announcement. Archived 5 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ https://account.authorize.net/UI/themes/MintAnnouncement.htm. Retrieved July 6, 2009. See "3 July 2009" and "4 July 2009" announcements. Archived 5 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ a b Burt, Allen (February 26, 2017). "Your Ultimate Payment Gateway Comparison Guide". Huffington Post.
  19. ^ Culbertson, Joy (October 26, 2015). "Daily API RoundUp: Billingbooth, RivieraBuild, Plus Authorize.Net, ClearBlade SDKs". ProgrammableWeb.
  20. ^ "What to Know About 5 Popular Payment Gateways". ABC Signup. January 1, 2015. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
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