You have a hankering for spicy tuna rolls and hand the credit card to the cashier at the neighborhood Japanese restaurant, who swipes it on a device plugged into an iPad. What looked novel a few years ago, now is commonplace, in large part because of payments company Square Inc. It took an old-school business -- with big, expensive cash registers that were complicated to hook up -- and gave the process a low-cost, low-hassle approach. Yet as Square prepares a roadshow for its initial public offering expected by year’s end, six years after it was founded, the industry has become increasingly crowded. Below are about a half-dozen companies, big and...
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