Google is in talks to acquire Softcard, a company that allows users to pay for things on their mobile devices, according to reports.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is seeking to take on the Apple Pay service using the biggest wireless carriers as its allies.

Softcard is owned by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and the company recently laid of 60 employees while telling remaining employees to stop working until a buyer could be found, according to the report.

Google is offering $50 million for the business, and Paypal — which owner eBay is seeking to spin off this year — is also interested in acquiring Softcard. However, the company appears to prefer Google because the telecom company that owns it distributes phones that use Google’s Android mobile operating system.

All of the companies declined to comment on the move to the Wall Street Journal.

Google already has a mobile payments service called Wallet, but the search giant had failed to get telecom companies to cooperate. The telecom companies created Softcard to compete with Wallet, but that effort also failed to catch on.

Apple Pay’s arrival in November and its early success has caused the telecom companies and Google to realize they will need to work together to get a foothold in the market before Apple takes over.

Paypal appears unlikely to get the deal as the telecom carriers have a model for sharing with Google, making a teaming more attractive. Google would gets revenue from searches on Android phones and from its Play store through the telecom companies.

The reason Wallet never flew with telecom companies is because Google’s vision was to used a closed-loop advertising system that would use purchases in stores to improve ad targeting, but the companies couldn’t agree on how revenue would be shared. Softcard could revive such a deal and put the companies in a better position to compete with Apple.