Square talking to banks about possible 2014 IPO

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Square-talking-to-banks-about-possible-2014-IPO-4962089.php

by bitops • 13 years ago

39 28 13 years ago

adambom• 13 years ago

Where is the article? I clicked this and saw headline + picture.

adanto6840• 13 years ago

Unfortunately appears to be behind a paywall: "To continue reading this story, you will need to be a digital subscriber to SFChronicle.com."

jonbwhite• 13 years ago

Non-paywalled version via sfgate: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Square-talking-to-b...

nnnnnn• 13 years ago

I know there is short-form literature, but this "article" may have taken that form too far.

angersock2• 13 years ago

Finally, an IPO for something that's actually useful.

ethnt• 13 years ago

And something that's actually profitable.

jonknee3• 13 years ago

Square isn't profitable... Even the linked article makes this clear:

While the company is not yet profitable, Dorsey has done a number of things designed to generate profit within two years, including bringing on new board members.

New board members always means profits!

stephenhuey• 13 years ago

I'm a fan, but it's ironic to hear about this on the day that I discovered that Boomtown, one of my favorite Houston coffee shops, has switched away from Square to Revel.

angersock2• 13 years ago

Black Hole is still rocking it, though. :)

We should grab a coffee!

loceng• 13 years ago

They need to do it now because the % that companies are able to charge is going to collapse very soon. This is a money grab for founders and investors - that's all. Square will have money to try to compete but they'll have a hard time.

albertyw• 13 years ago

As a person who isn't in this space, why do you say that? Is it because of increasing competition or something to do with Braintree/Paypal?

sgpl• 13 years ago

Obviously I can't speak for the OP, but here are three things I can think of:

[1] Current Bull Market. (S&P500 is up 22.5% YTD)

[2] Tech IPOs are hot atm. (see TWTR)

[3] Lots of liquidity in the market courtesy of the Federal Reserve (Quantitative Easing)

The general premise is that all bull markets must end at some point. Also the Federal Reserve will start tapering (the liquidity that it is providing to the market via quantitative easing) at some point in the near future. This might mean that the company has a short window to time its IPO to "grab money" at the high end of its valuation (given the current favorable market conditions).

[1] http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bullmarket.asp

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/best-stock-market-s...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6690043

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing

gesman2• 13 years ago

Stripe should do it too.

reustle• 13 years ago

I would like to see Stripe and Square join forces

nfoz• 13 years ago

Squipe!

Gnewt• 13 years ago

Fully agreed. I just implemented Stripe to take payments for my consulting business online, and it's really nice. My only complaint is that Stripe takes a week to initiate a bank transfer, rather than Square's one business day.

I think right now there's a large difference in culture. Square is really hip and tries to avoid exposing 'nerd stuff' to their users, whereas Stripe focuses heavily on API examples etc. Seeing them combine but stay two different 'personas' could be beneficial for both.

jgalt212• 13 years ago

Does Square usage have any network effects?

Square talking to banks about possible 2014 IPO

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