FIRST DATA'S ENCORUS FALLS VICTIM TO SIMPAY'S COLLAPSE.(First Data Corp. ends financing Encorus Technologies)

First Data Corp. today announced that it has closed its checkbook on Encorus, a provider of mobile-payments software, mobile merchant-acquisition services and transaction processing. First Data's decision to drop its investment in Encorus and First Data's Mobile Solutions, of which Encorus was the major part, comes less than a month after the unexpected closing of Simpay, the pan-European mobile payments platform, with which Encorus had a major contract. "That's right, that's right. Simpay was Encorus' main client," a First Data spokesperson tells CardLine today. In April 2004, Simpay named Encorus as its exclusive transaction processor in multiyear deal (CardLine, 4/5/04). …