BOKU Signs Sprint, Hires Industry Vets

BOKU today announced it will supply its direct carrier-based billing technology to Sprint, rounding out its deals with the four biggest nationwide U.S. carriers. The Sprint tie-up means customers can make purchases online from BOKU’s merchant network of Web-based gaming companies, social networks and service providers. BOKU merchant partners on Sprint include Electronic Arts, Riot Games, Jagex, Stardoll, Kingisle and Gaia Online. The BOKU deal is not intended to compete with Sprint’s other offers. The carrier offers Google Wallet on the Nexus S 4G from Google, as well as BilltoMobile solutions and Sprint Mobile Wallet, which stores customers’ credit card and loyalty card information, allowing them to make online purchases on their device. As for BOKU, it also announced a direct billing agreement with Deutsche Telekom in Germany and the hiring of two key industry veterans. “We have a ton of momentum around the globe,” says BOKU President Ron Hirson, noting relationships with more than 240 carriers worldwide. The big challenge is managing all that growth, and the two new hires are on board to help with that. Jon Prideaux, former executive vice president for Visa, and Stuart Neal, former managing director of international development for Barclaycard, are joining BOKU as chief business officer and senior vice president of business development, respectively. Prideaux was an early Visa Europe employee, joining the company in 1989 at a time when it had fewer employees than BOKU does now. He worked with Visa for 17 years. During his time at Visa Europe, he started Visa’s Internet division and was the lead executive on the introduction of chip and PIN technology, which has become an industry standard in Europe. Neal joins BOKU after six years at Barclaycard, during which time he was responsible for growing its merchant acquiring division, the second largest in Europe with more than 300 staff members operating in multiple countries. He is a prominent figure in the European payments market, with expertise in deploying point-of-sale solutions. He is credited for spearheading the adoption of NFC at the point of sale in the United Kingdom. At next week’s CTIA show in New Orleans, BOKU will be exhibiting in MasterCard’s booth.