Payments are a white-hot market right now. Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Square and PayPal are all lusting after the transactional fees and data that continue to flow, and will continue to flow, over the technology rails built by Visa and Mastercard. Everyone in Silicon Valley talks about “disrupting” the payment networks, or killing Visa or some daft talk like that. But have you seen the stock charts for V and MA? It’s insane. Like, Netflixian insane. Mastercard is up 21-fold since its IPO in 2006. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is up a “mere” 133%. Visa is up 4x since its IPO in 2008.
They’re not sexy or groovy, but both Visa and Mastercard are on our list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies (at nos. 32 and 36, respectively).

from Forbes – Tech http://ift.tt/1Lj8qJI
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