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I'd be surprised if Apple doesn't buy Stripe soon.

true_religion 10y ago
I really hope that doesn't happen.
kylec 10y ago
Maybe Square too/instead. The ability to send cash through an iMessage with Square was demoed in the keynote, and I have to think that Apple would have really liked to have been able to do that themselves with Apple Pay.
Keats 10y ago
That would be a nightmare.
TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago
They don't need to, they have, well, Apple Pay. And Stripe is a B2B service, if Apple buys it, it would die. Why would they acquire them?
the_watcher 10y ago
Why would Stripe accept an offer unless it's so large that it makes little to no sense for Apple?
- joshdickson 10y ago
  CEO and board have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. If Apple showed up with enough cash ($5-6B?) it would be hard for the board to say no. That kind of money might be an overpayment, but with the amount of cash that Apple has, you can afford to make any number of poorly priced strategic investments. Stripe is still small enough that Apple could vastly overpay and it would make little difference for Apple, while being enough money that the board had to agree to the deal. That said, I sure hope they don't do that. Stripe would do better at a platform company like Amazon than Apple if it was decided they needed to be bought to continue growing.
  - the_watcher 10y ago
    > CEO and board have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. While there is a fiduciary responsibility, private != public in this regard. If the Collison's retain enough equity to control the company, doesn't matter what the rest of the board thinks (I have no idea what their cap table looks like, to be clear)
pbarnes_1 10y ago
Why would they? Stripe is just one of X layers which Apple Pay can run on. There's no need for them to get into that business. The next stage for Apple Pay is to run their own payment network between Apple Pay users. No Stripe required, Apple takes a processing fee instead of First Data, etc.

I really hope that doesn't happen.

kylec 10y ago

Maybe Square too/instead. The ability to send cash through an iMessage with Square was demoed in the keynote, and I have to think that Apple would have really liked to have been able to do that themselves with Apple Pay.

Keats 10y ago

That would be a nightmare.

TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago

They don't need to, they have, well, Apple Pay. And Stripe is a B2B service, if Apple buys it, it would die. Why would they acquire them?

the_watcher 10y ago

Why would Stripe accept an offer unless it's so large that it makes little to no sense for Apple?

joshdickson 10y ago
CEO and board have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. If Apple showed up with enough cash ($5-6B?) it would be hard for the board to say no. That kind of money might be an overpayment, but with the amount of cash that Apple has, you can afford to make any number of poorly priced strategic investments. Stripe is still small enough that Apple could vastly overpay and it would make little difference for Apple, while being enough money that the board had to agree to the deal. That said, I sure hope they don't do that. Stripe would do better at a platform company like Amazon than Apple if it was decided they needed to be bought to continue growing.
- the_watcher 10y ago
  > CEO and board have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. While there is a fiduciary responsibility, private != public in this regard. If the Collison's retain enough equity to control the company, doesn't matter what the rest of the board thinks (I have no idea what their cap table looks like, to be clear)

pbarnes_1 10y ago

Why would they? Stripe is just one of X layers which Apple Pay can run on. There's no need for them to get into that business. The next stage for Apple Pay is to run their own payment network between Apple Pay users. No Stripe required, Apple takes a processing fee instead of First Data, etc.