BuscaPe Acquires 85% of Payment Methods Company Pagamento Digital

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- BuscaPe (http://www.buscape.com), owner of the largest Latin American price comparison site, announced the acquisition of Pagamento Digital (http://www.pagamentodigital.com.br), an online payments management platform that puts together a electronic payment methods gateway (credit cards, bank payment certificates and electronic transfers) and a chargeback transactions risk analysis platform (e-commerce and telesales). Pagamento Digital acts as an intermediary between the seller and buyer, ensuring both is satisfied with the completed online transaction.

Pagamento Digital currently has more than 500 clients, with a GMV forecast of R$ 20 million through 2008. The deal's main objective is to offer higher security to merchants and customers who participate in electronic commerce. "Retailers who have or plan to have an Internet sales operation will have a complete platform at their disposal for their online activities, with payment method solution totally integrated with the already famous BuscaPe price comparison system," said Romero Rodrigues, founder and President of BuscaPe.com Inc. (http://www.buscape.com)

BuscaPe Financial Services, responsible for the acquisition, is managed by Rene Abe, BuscaPe Vice-President and Financial Market Executive, who has vast experience in the online financial products market. According to Abe, the user will have products and financial services at their disposal adapted for online consumers, with an emphasis on control and management of risk exposure in the e-commerce environment. "As well as the advantages for the merchants, the clients of virtual shops will also have higher security with the possibility of blocking payments to the merchants if the product they bought has not been received or damaged," Abe added.

In the online sales market, it is still common for merchants to not have access to important payment methods for their operation. With Pagamento Digital, a simple, seamless and easy integration payment method will be offered, 100% adapted for online sales promotion needs (through installment loans and/or products with online credit cards, e-CDC (Electronic Commerce for Developing Countries) or electronic credit assignment), cash-flow management (by the anticipation of the merchants' receivables thru bank partnerships) and, mainly, the guarantee that the merchant will receive the sums by the management of chargeback sales risk.

For consumers, the proposal offers not only more attractive installment and payment conditions, but also convenience and security with the possibility of blocking payment to the merchant if the product is not received or is damaged.

Pagamento Digital was founded on an idea from Tray Sistemas -- a company that develops solutions for electronic commerce, focused on small- and medium- sized companies -- to offer shops payment methods that they themselves develop, but discovered that the big problem was how the payments would be made.

"For us, it is an honor to be alongside one of the Brazilian Internet pioneers. We undoubtedly have a lot to learn with BuscaPe, and we hope to travel together on the road to success that they have always been on since their founding," added Walter Marques, Administrative Director of Pagamento Digital.

For Romero Rodrigues, the acquisition is of a strategically fundamental character: "All parts of our group took part in the decision-making process for the purchase. BuscaPe, Bondfaro and Central de Desejos have a strong presence in the pre-purchase phase, helping the user decide what and where to purchase, while units like e-bit and QueBarato are in post-sales, collecting market information and allowing users to freely sell their products. Pagamento Digital will at last integrate the two parts of the process, making the sales cycle complete," he stated.

About BuscaPe

Creator of a product search and price research service offered at http://www.buscape.com.br since June 1999, Grupo BuscaPe.com (http://www.buscape.com) is made up of media companies focused on the Latin American e-commerce purchase decision process. Receiving more than 30 million hits every month and present in 28 countries, BuscaPe is the absolute leader in purchase decisions in Latin America.

Its main companies are:

BuscaPe (http://www.buscape.com.br): Leader in price comparison, present in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia; BuscaPe compares prices of more than 7,000,000 products sold by 60,000 companies. It is also responsible for shopping on more than 100 portals, including Microsoft MSN, Yahoo, Abril, Globo and Terra.

Bondfaro (http://www.bondfaro.com.br): Leader in product research and information, Bondfaro helps consumers decide which is the right product to buy. With greater focus on products, the site offers videos and evaluations from their own specialists, as well as from users themselves.

e-bit (http://www.ebit.com.br): At the forefront in the development of electronic commerce in Brazil, e-bit is becoming recognized as the most respected source of e-commerce information, with more than 5.5 million searches carried out since 2000 in more than 1,500 affiliated virtual shops. From 2008 on, it will increase its presence in the following Latin American countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

QueBarato! (http://www.quebarato.org): Absolute leader in free classified advertisements, the recently launched QueBarato is present in 28 Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries, allowing people to advertise their products, services, cars and properties in a fast, efficient and free manner.

About Tray Sistemas / Pagamento Digital

Tray Sistemas (http://www.tray.com.br) develops solutions for electronic commerce (virtual shops suites, with all e-commerces features, from product exposure to checkout systems), focused on small and medium-sized companies and created Pagamento Digital (http://www.pagamentodigital.com.br) -- online payment platform -- to offer payment methods to the shops that the company itself would develop after discovering how big was the way payments would be made.