Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s digital financial platform Square has announced its plans to acquire ASX-listed buy now pay later behemoth Afterpay in an all-stock deal. At $29 billion, the transaction for the entire deal is said to be Australia’s biggest-ever buyout.
The founders of Afterpay, Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen will continue to hold the position with the company.
Jack Dorsey asserted that both Square and Afterpay have a shared purpose to create a business to make the financial system fair, accessible, and inclusive. The exec claimed that the Australian ‘buy now, pay later’ firm Afterpay, has built a trusted brand aligned with those principles. Dorsey went on to add that company’s buy now, pay later feature would be implemented with its Seller and Cash app products.
“Together, we can better connect our Cash App and Seller ecosystems to deliver even more compelling products and services for merchants and consumers, putting the power back in their hands.”
The main objective behind this acquisition is to facilitate the two entities to deliver innovative financial products and services that foster access to more users and encourage incremental revenue for merchants of all sizes. According to the official press release by the payment juggernaut, the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, if all the closing conditions are met.
Commenting on the latest development, Alyssa Henry, Lead of Square’s Seller business stated,
“Buy now, pay later has been a powerful growth tool for sellers globally. We are thrilled to not only add this product to our Seller ecosystem but to do it with a trusted and innovative team.”
Square’s Bitcoin Revenue
Cash App, which happens to be the peer-to-peer payments service of the payment firm Square, raked in $2.72 billion in Bitcoin revenue in the second quarter of 2021. Interestingly, the yearly revenues rose by 200%. Announcing the impressive earnings figures, Square also revealed that its Bitcoin service accounted for the lion’s share of its total net revenue of $4.68 billion for the second quarter which was up by 143% year over year despite a series of market corrections.
Bitcoin revenue and gross profit declined from the first quarter of the year because of unstable prices that had an adverse effect on the trading activity as opposed to prior quarters.