A group of 14 merchants is expected to announce a joint venture to create a mobile payment app that would compete with Google Wallet, start-up Square and others, according to a report.
The group, which includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. and Target Corp., is expected to announce the news Wednesday, and the service is expected to be called Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX.
It's unclear how much each company is contributing to the effort, but the network of merchants also includes 7-Eleven Inc., Alon Brands Inc., CVS Caremark Corp., Darden Restaurants Inc., the HMSHost unit of Autogrill Spa, Hy-Vee Inc., Lowe's Cos., Publix Super Markets Inc., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Sears Holdings Corp. and Sunoco Inc.
The network has yet to set a launch date for MCX or find a chief executive, but the merchants are set on jumping into the market, which is expected to balloon to $600 billion by 2016 compared to $172 billion this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news.