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Unlikely that such a thing would be deadly: - Square likely has an exclusive or near-exclusive deal with Starbucks. - Starbucks has fairly close ties to Apple
by ConstantineXVI 14y ago
Unlikely that such a thing would be deadly:
- Square likely has an exclusive or near-exclusive deal with Starbucks.
- Starbucks has fairly close ties to Apple, if such a system were coming they'd want to be sure Starbucks was involved (so they'd already know about it)
- Assuming #2 is true anyway, that would make the $25 million investment incredibly risky; their stock would be murdered once the news came out.
(Side note: assuming all of the above, this essentially kills any rumors of Apple buying Square; why would Starbucks bother investing in them and getting on the board?)
- dangoor 14y agoActually, if Apple had an interest in Square, wouldn't it then be a shrewd move for Starbucks to invest and get on the board? Buying into a company not long before it's acquired can be a great way to make a buck.
- brackin 14y agoThe interesting thing is at the Apple keynote they announced Passbook and showed a Starbucks card, the passbook product is lacklustre in comparison. This shows Apple is betting on this and Starbucks would rather go with a solution that fits in with their current message (using your name).
- ConstantineXVI 14y agoI'd totally forgotten about that demo. So either Apple doesn't have a first-party payment system in the works (I honestly don't blame them, it's hard business) that they've told anyone about, or they do and Starbucks said no thanks.