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PayPal and Discover expand partnership, will reach 2 million stores by year-end

When PayPal saw Square for the first time, we're fairly sure its CEO glumly stared out of the window, said "we're going to the mattresses" and promptly called the CEO of Discover to talk about an alliance. That unholy union has now brought PayPal into 250,000 retail outlets in the US, and the pair is now promising that the figure will be closer to two million by the end of 2013. Merchant acquirers such as Vantiv, WorldPay and TSYS have also signed up, presumably begging the pair not to let Jack Dorsey take the shirt from their backs.

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Discover Helps PayPal Reach 2 Million Merchant Outlets by End of 2013

Contracts with First 50 Merchant Acquirers Set Stage for Widespread Acceptance by Year's End
2013 ETA Annual Meeting

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ETA –Discover today announced it has signed contracts with 50 merchant acquirers that will extend PayPal's in-store acceptance to more than 2 million merchant outlets by the end of 2013.

The milestone comes eight months after PayPal announced its intent to create an innovative payment option that leverages Discover's payments infrastructure to provide PayPal's 55+ million active domestic account holders access to millions of retail stores, restaurants, gas pumps and more.

"With the signing of 50 merchant acquirers to date, we are well on our way toward helping PayPal reach its goals of acceptance at millions of physical locations in the U.S.," said Diane Offereins, president of payment services at Discover. "Our relationship represents the unique abilities we have to leverage our payments assets and infrastructure to work with emerging payments leaders like PayPal, and we're proud of the progress we've made in such a short time."

"With Discover's help we are poised to grow from the 250,000 retailers who accept PayPal in store today to more than 2 million by the end of 2013," said Don Kingsborough, vice president of retail services at PayPal. "As consumers continue to use technology to shop in new and exciting ways, we will continue to collaborate with Discover's acquirer partners to support the growing needs of their merchants."

Some of the largest merchant acquirers and processors have already committed to offering PayPal, including Vantiv, WorldPay, Global Payments, First American Payments, Heartland Payment Systems and TSYS. Other leading acquirers and processors continue to join on a regular basis.

"We are proud to have given our business owners the opportunity to be the first merchants nationwide to let consumers use PayPal in stores," said Tony Catalfano, President and CEO of WorldPay U.S. "With the expanded acceptance options, our merchants are able to offer more payment choices for their customers, create better opportunities for engaging customers, help increase sales, and solve problems to make their customers' experience better."