Credit card juggernaut MasterCard has agreed to acquire DataCash Group in a bid to drive its e-commerce payment expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Australia. U.S.-based MasterCard, which makes money from processing credit and debit card payments on its network, said it would pay 360 pence per share for the British processor of Internet credit-card sales, representing a 54 percent premium to the company’s Wednesday close. The deal represents approximately £333 million (roughly $520 million), to be paid in cash.

Achieving Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance for online transactions is an expensive and timely endeavor; routinely costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and spanning several quarters in tim. According to Gartner , PCI compliance will cost up to an average of $2.7 million among Level 1 merchants and $267,000 among Level 2 merchants. Further, Visa and Mastercard will be imposing new PCI requirements upon online merchants, which will include more frequent on and off site security reviews, beginning in 2010; thus forcing more companies to upgrade their systems to meet compliance standards

When I first heard that Mastercard was releasing an iPhone app called “Priceless Picks,” I thought for sure it would be a lame gimmick. But I must admit, it’s actually a kind of cool gimmick. If you’ve ever watched TV, you’ve undoubtedly seen at least a dozen of the Mastercard “Priceless” ads