Blackhawk Network Announces Partnership to Integrate Gift Cards Into Samsung Pay

PLEASANTON, Calif., Oct. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Blackhawk Network announced its partnership with Samsung Pay, which will allow the integration of gift cards into the Samsung Pay mobile payment solution. Samsung Pay gives users a simple and convenient way to make payments through their phones almost anywhere you can swipe or tap your card. Blackhawk Network is a pioneer of prepaid gift cards, payments tools and rewards delivered via a robust and convenient network.

Combining Samsung's pioneering and award-winning Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology with Near Field Communication (NFC), Samsung Pay is compatible with most existing payment terminals, allowing gift card users to make payments from select Samsung phones at many merchant locations where gift cards are accepted.

"We are thrilled to complement Samsung Pay's groundbreaking mobile payment technology with the upcoming integration of gift cards into the application," said Talbott Roche, president of Blackhawk Network. "Consumers often have several gift cards at any given time, and the ability to integrate them into a single mobile payment solution, coupled with Samsung Pay's unique MST technology allowing for convenient redemption, is expected to provide a value add to Samsung Pay users."

"Blackhawk Network is a valued partner in our ongoing launch of Samsung Pay—the world's most accepted mobile payment system," said Thomas Ko, global co-general manager of Samsung Pay. "Just in time for the holidays, customers will be able to use gift cards with Samsung Pay almost anywhere you can swipe or tap your card."

Here is how Samsung Pay works:

• SIMPLE: To make a payment on Samsung Pay, users can simply swipe up to open the app, scan their fingerprint and pay.
• SAFE: Samsung Pay uses digital tokenization, Samsung KNOX, and fingerprint authentication.
• ALMOST ANYWHERE: Samsung Pay is compatible with most existing and new terminals, including magnetic stripe, EMV and NFC terminals. *

About Blackhawk Network
Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK) is a leading prepaid and payments global company, which supports the program management and distribution of gift cards, prepaid telecom products and financial service products in a number of different retail, digital and incentive channels. Blackhawk's digital platform supports prepaid across a network of digital distribution partners including retailers, financial service providers, and mobile wallets. For more information, please visit www.blackhawknetwork.com and www.giftcardmall.com.

About Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay is a simple, safe and available almost anywhere you can swipe or tap your card mobile payment service from Samsung Electronics. Combining NFC with Samsung's proprietary MST technologies, Samsung Pay provides consumers a way to pay almost anywhere you can swipe or tap a card at millions of merchant locations. Samsung continues to strategically expand its partnership ecosystem for Samsung Pay to provide greater flexibility, access, and choice for customers while enabling an easy and safe payment experience. Samsung Pay is compatible only with select cards and Samsung devices. Visit www.samsung.com/pay to learn more.

*Some card reader terminals may require software updates to be compatible with Samsung Pay.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies, redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras, digital appliances, printers, medical equipment, network systems, and semiconductor and LED solutions. We are also leading in the Internet of Things space through, among others, our Smart Home and Digital Health initiatives. We employ 319,000 people across 84 countries with annual sales of US $196 billion. To discover more, please visit our official website at www.samsung.com and our official blog at global.samsungtomorrow.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to the Blackhawk's partnership with Samsung Pay, including the risk arising from gift card users' preferences to make payments from their Samsung phones, the integration of mobile wallet technology with the gift cards into the Samsung application and Samsung Pay's compatibility with existing and new terminals. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of words such as, but not limited to, "anticipate," "believe," "can," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "seek," "should," "target," "will," "would," "on track" and similar expressions or variations intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Blackhawk's management based on information currently available to management. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified in the "Risk Factors" section in Blackhawk's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Furthermore, such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, Blackhawk undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

CONTACT:
Tara Strazdas for Blackhawk Network
[email protected]
732-275-7732

Shruti Sehgal for Samsung
[email protected]
646-452-5637

SOURCE Blackhawk Network