Google Wallet Chief Exits Company (May 9, 2013)
Google Inc.’s vice president of payments and wallet has left the company to pursue outside interests, Google confirms. Osama Bedier, who joined Google in 2011 after eight years at PayPal, played a key role in Google Wallet’s recent milestones as well as announcing Google’s purchase of TxVia about a year ago.
“We can confirm that Osama Bedier has decided to leave Google this year to pursue other opportunities. He’s achieved a lot during his time here and we wish him all the best in his next endeavor,” a Google spokesperson says in a statement. “Payments are a big part of what people do every day and we’re committed to making them easier for everyone.”
As Google Wallet’s point man, Bedier promised the concept would be “ubiquitous” through a combination of NFC and cloud-based technology. In October 2012 Bedier told attendees during the Money2020 conference in Las Vegas that Google was readying a major upgrade of Google Wallet.
Beginning May 15 Google will host Google I/O, its annual developer conference in San Francisco, which is expected to attract 6,000 attendees. For this year’s event, all attendees for the first time were required to pay their registration fee with Google Wallet. Observers expect Google to showcase the next Android release and upgrades to other Google services.
