Are you sure someone at KYC doesn't have some incriminating...

Are you sure someone at KYC doesn't have some incriminating pictures of your Geoffo :) Given the current market surely there must be some better places to put your hard earned money.

Your assertion that all the more secure PayPass and EMV systems using Multos is a bit off base. Multos is just one of many options that are available as an O/S for a card system.

I am running this through my head and I just can't for the life of me work out why anyone would invest in Keycorp. Lets look at it:

Terminals - they have good exposure in 2 markets (Canada and Australia) both of which are a little bit off any major EMV roll-out. I would say both will see some action around 2010. Canada is piloting this year, but I'm definitely not seeing a huge rush to roll anything out.
Australia - I will raise one question - why did NAB buy a crap load of Sagem terminals last year rather than stick to their own backyard? They have had the K23 for at least 5 years so you have to question why the NAB made that decision.

Contactless Terminals - do they even have a solution?? If they do I'm not aware of it. not complete rocket science though. I think you will see most of the majors with their own variations of contactless acceptance hardware at Cates this year (Paris, November 2nd week. If you really are interested in my industry it is a must visit. Everything from massive card machines to smart card holders to Brazilian dancing girls. Sorry, side tracked).

Cards - as I mentioned, I don't have anything against the Multos O/S per se, but success for PayPass and EMV doesn't necessarily equal success for Multos and Keycorp. There is stacks and stacks of competition in a rapidly compacting margin business. The cost of cards has dropped significantly (don't tell the banks I said that, they still scream at > USD0.50 per card). It is a hard business, if it wasn't you wouldn't have seen the Axalto/Gemplus merger.

Services - this is actually a business of theirs I like. You get good economies of scale and the deal with FDR looks to be a good one. It is a margin business so you don't want too many terminal failures. But it isn't the most scaleable business, ie it is an Aussie business and removes those hockey stick like growth forecasts that success in the wider payments arena could give you.

I think your best bet with Keycorp is if someone buys them. But there are better positioned payments companies in much worst situations (well bad situations) like Hypercom who would be a better buy right now.

All of the above is purely from a business perspective and not taking into account KYC's balance sheet.