Authorize.Net
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Payment gateway, Financial technology |
| Founded | 1 January 1996 in Utah, United States |
| Founder | Jeff Knowles |
| Headquarters | United States |
Area served | Worldwide (primarily small and mid-sized merchants) |
| Products | Payment gateway services, fraud prevention tools, recurring billing, checkout solutions, APIs and SDKs, virtual terminal, invoicing |
| Parent | Visa Inc. |
Authorize.Net is a payment gateway provider headquartered in the United States, facilitating online acceptance of credit card and electronic check transactions for merchants through their websites or IP connections. Established in 1996 by Jeff Knowles in Utah, the company now operates as a subsidiary under Visa Inc.. Unlike platforms that require customers to register beforehand, this service enables users to input payment and shipping information directly on the merchant’s website.
History
Since its inception in 1996, Authorize.Net expanded to serve around 90,000 clients by 2004. In 1999, it was purchased by Go2Net, an enterprise supported by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, for $90.5 million paid in cash and stock. The following year, InfoSpace acquired Go2Net for nearly $4 billion. Subsequently, in 2004, Lightbridge acquired Authorize.Net for $82 million before it was sold again to CyberSource in 2007.
In 2010, Visa Inc. completed the acquisition of CyberSource, including Authorize.Net, for $2 billion. Visa has maintained distinct brand identities: Authorize.Net serves small to medium enterprises, while CyberSource caters to large-scale and international payment processing needs. Upon acquisition, the CEO outlined goals focusing on ecommerce growth, enhanced fraud detection measures, and strengthened data security protocols. By 2014, the combined customer base of both companies reached approximately 450,000.
Outages
In September 2004, Authorize.Net suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack lasting more than a week that disrupted its payment gateway operations. The perpetrators demanded ransom to halt the attack.
On July 2, 2009, an electrical fire at Fisher Plaza caused a complete outage of Authorize.Net’s web infrastructure, impacting over 200,000 merchants who were unable to process credit card transactions. The disruption continued into July 3 and coincided with the July 4 holiday period when phone support was unavailable. The company provided updates via Twitter but only restored phone support on July 5.
Services
Authorize.Net specializes in processing card and ACH payments primarily for small and mid-sized merchants. Its offerings include fraud prevention tools, recurring billing capabilities, and convenient checkout solutions. Developers can integrate its services using APIs and SDKs available for Android and iOS platforms. Additional functionalities comprise a virtual terminal and invoicing options for manual payment entry alongside dedicated technical assistance.
By 2015, Authorize.Net had established itself as the payment processor with the largest clientele and commanded a substantial portion of the payment processing market. It is regarded as a prominent and well-established entity within the industry.
See also
- Visa Inc.
- 1999 mergers and acquisitions
- 2004 mergers and acquisitions
- 2007 mergers and acquisitions
- 1996 establishments in Utah
- 2007 disestablishments in Utah
- Companies based in Utah
- American companies established in 1996
- American companies disestablished in 1999
- Computer companies established in 1996
- Computer companies disestablished in 1999
- Defunct computer companies of the United States
- Defunct computer hardware companies
- Financial services companies established in 1996
- Financial technology companies
- Merchant services
- Online payments
- Companies of the United States by year of establishment