Reports: Square Preparing for IPO? (Sept. 28, 2015)
Square Inc. may be getting ready to file an initial public offering within the next two weeks, according to a report in Fortune magazine, adding weight to rumors going back more than two years about the m-POS company’s desire to go public. The news service Bloomberg in July said Square had submitted a confidential filing to the SEC related to an IPO, indicating Goldman Sachs would serve as lead underwriter with participation from Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase. Square is valued at $6 billion, according to industry estimates.
Square, founded in 2009, launched its pioneering m-POS service the following year, sparking a revolution in payments by introducing technology enabling individuals and small merchants to accept card payments via mobile handsets. Usage soared and competitors soon followed, but Square remains a dominant m-POS brand, even as it diversifies its services. The San Francisco-based company processed $30 billion in payments from millions of users last year, and has expanded its services to include business lending and payroll processing.
If Square goes public in the near future, it could put Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey in the position of running two publicly traded companies at the same time, because Dorsey currently is serving as interim CEO of Twitter, which he also co-founded. Dorsey reportedly recuses himself from deals the two companies work on together, such as a Twitter-Square partnership announced earlier this month enabling U.S. voters to contribute to political campaigns via tweets.
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