Quickhits: Heartland Settles With Visa for $60 Million

Read all about it here.  Note, analyst Avivah Litan of Gartner indicated the "this seems like a very fair settlement, and it seems like Heartland escaped the tremendous costs that TJX incurred - $139 million plus - despite the fact that Heartland's breach was more extensive."  In reality TJX settled with Visa for $41 million, and the $139 million figure (wherever she got it from -- this article from June 2009 claims TJX expended $320 million) likely includes both the Visa and Mastercard settlement amounts PLUS the costs and expenses to defend the numerous actions filed against TJX.  At this point I doubt that Ms. Litan (or anybody else except Heartland) knows how much Heartland has incurred in expenses to defend the numerous lawsuits and regulatory actions it is facing.