Search giant Google has reaffirmed its ambitions to become a power player in mobile payments by poaching PayPal's m-platform leader Osama Bedier.
Bedier, vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures at PayPal has been with the company for eight years. He led the successful open platform development programme two years ago and more recently has been a central player in PayPal's expansion into new form factors, including mobile payments.
In a statement, PayPal's chief technology officer Scott Guilfoyle says: "Osama helped open our platform to the world...and that's driving great innovation and momentum. I want to personally thank Osama for his friendship and leadership."
Google has yet to make clear its intentions for Bedier, but it is likely he will bring his experience to bear on the search company's plans to add NFC capabilities to the Nexus smartphone and Android platform.
Earlier this month, outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt identified the development of mobile money platforms as a key strategic priority for the search engine giant in 2011.