Visa, Plaid call off merger

Visa and Plaid announced Tuesday that they have terminated their merger agreement and agreed with the Department of Justice to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit related to the proposed $ 5.3 billion transaction, according to the Wall Street Journal. Visa’s proposed acquisition of Plaid, a service that offer financial tech tools to companies such as Venmo and SoFi and many large banks that allow people to access their accounts through apps, was first announced on Jan. 13 last year. In November, the Justice Department sued to block the deal, alleging it would allow Visa to maintain a monopoly in the online debit- card market. A trial was scheduled for June in California federal court, and Visa had said it would fight the suit.