Apple Pay continues to gain strong adoption Apple Inc chief executive Tim Cook reported Thursday Also on Thursday Mitek Systems Inc a small but prominent provider of software for mobile remote deposit capture and identity verification gave a decidedly cool response in its first comments about a 425 million buyout offer Cook who reviewed results for Cupertino Calif-based Apples fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 ended Sept 29 didnt give a transaction number but three months ago revealed that Apple Pay passed the 1-billion transaction mark in the fiscal third quarter ended June 30 Now the transaction count apparently is well north of that Apple Pays transaction volume tripled year-over-year in the fourth quarter Apple CEO Tim Cook says I want to spotlight the exceptional performance of Apple Pay which is by far the No 1 mobile-contactless payments service worldwide Cook said on a conference call with analysts Transaction volume tripled year-over-year and to put that into perspective Apple Pay generated significantly more transactions than even PayPal Mobile with over four times the growth rate PayPal Holdings Inc recently reported 57 billion in mobile-payment volume for the quarter ended Sept 30 up 35 from a year earlier to represent 40 of PayPals overall payment volume of 143 billion PayPal didnt break out mobile transactions but said it had 25 billion total payment transactions in the third quarter Forty percent of that would imply approximately 1 billion transactions from mobile devices Cook added that with the recent additions of Costco Wholesale Corps 500-plus stores and more than 40 from Neiman Marcus Apple Pay is now accepted by 71 of the top 100 US merchants and at 60 of US retail locations That latter statistic is the result of US merchants converting to the EMV chip card standard which has prompted most to deploy chip-reading point-of-sale terminals that also support the near-field communication contactless technology used by Apple Pay Many merchants especially small ones however have yet to turn on NFC functionality While Apple appears to be making inroads in mobile payments San Diego-based Mitek is weighing whether to remain an independent company Rumors about a possible buyout started in early October ASG Technologies Group Inc a Naples Fla-based business software provider owned by the hedge fund Elliott Management Corp went public Wednesday with a 10-per-share cash offer which ASG said represents a 51 premium to Miteks share price before news reports started pushing the stock up At Miteks quarterly earnings call Thursday afternoon however chairman Bruce Hansen indicated some tough negotiations lie ahead Hansen first outlined a four-point plan Mitek has to grow its business a plan he said offers substantial upside to Mitek shareholders ASG first approached the company after Mitek announced in August that long-time CEO James DeBello and chief financial officer Jeff Davison would be leaving according to Hansen We responded by saying we would be open to a discussion with them post our earnings report Hansen said They decided instead to publicly disclose their proposal yesterday the day before we announced our earnings results As our shareholders are well aware ASGs proposal offers zero premium to our 52-week high and its also well below the recent price targets set by every analyst that covers Mitek all of which by the way were issued prior to todays positive earnings report Miteks board of directors has not yet formally responded to ASGs offer Hansen said the board will carefully review and consider the ASG proposal in order to pursue the course of action that is in the best interest of Mitek shareholders Mitek wont have any further comment until thats done he said ASG could not be reached late Thursday for comment Mitek reported that revenue for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 ended Sept 30 increased 63 year-over-year to a record 21 million The company posted a 213 million net loss but factoring out one-time costs for acquisitions executive transitions and other expenses Mitek reported an adjusted profit of 572 million