LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: NPR's business news starts with MasterCard's latest charge.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: MasterCard has agreed to pay more than half-a-billion dollars to buy a British company that specializes in online payments. The British company is called DataCash. Like the American company PayPal, DataCash processes credit card payments over the Web. It sells software that allows organizations to process money transfers securely.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: MasterCard normally uses its own network to process credit and debit card payments. Now it's trying to expand into Internet payments so it can compete with the likes of PayPal, as well as traditional rivals like American Express and Visa.
Mastercard has agreed to pay $517 million to buy a British company that specializes in online payments. DataCash is similar to American company PayPal — processing credit card payments over the web. It sells software that allows organizations to process money transfers securely.