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Square talking to banks about possible 2014 IPO
- adambom 13y agoWhere is the article? I clicked this and saw headline + picture.
- adanto6840 13y agoUnfortunately appears to be behind a paywall: "To continue reading this story, you will need to be a digital subscriber to SFChronicle.com."
- jonbwhite 13y agoNon-paywalled version via sfgate: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Square-talking-to-banks-about-possible-2014-IPO-4962089.php http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Square-talking-to-b...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nnnnnn 13y agoI know there is short-form literature, but this "article" may have taken that form too far.
- angersock 13y agoFinally, an IPO for something that's actually useful.
- ethnt 13y agoAnd something that's actually profitable.
- jonknee 13y agoSquare 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!
- cylinder 13y agoStarting to think Dorsey doesn't have a clue about business and is just a good product guy. What a ridiculous comment. Why shouldn't a payment processor be profitable?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- pbreit 13y agoThere are a lot of ways to make a LOT of money on payment processing beyond the basic transaction fees. But you've gotta get big first. Square is playing this perfectly.
- potatolicious 13y agoBecause they're growing? There are two types of profitability of concern here: 1 - Is the product itself profitable. In this case: does the cost of providing a payment transaction cost Square more money than they charge for said transaction. A company that fails #1 is a really long way from success. 2 - Is the company itself profitable. You can have #1 but not #2, if you're pouring the bulk of your income into expansion. Square can very well be making money hand over fist, but still be in the red due to pouring all would-be profits into acquiring more market share and R&D into new markets (aka the Amazon model). Naturally, this is a risky move - it presumes that the the core product is long-term sustainable (i.e. the new market share you're acquiring is just as profitable as the market share you already have), and that the new markets you're investing massively in are worth it. All said and done, Square not turning a profit overall doesn't say much about the overall viability of their business model.
- 13y ago
- stephenhuey 13y agoI'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.
- angersock 13y agoBlack Hole is still rocking it, though. :) We should grab a coffee!
- loceng 13y agoThey 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 13y agoAs 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 13y agoObviously 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 http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bullmarket.asp [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/best-stock-market-since-1997-seen-with-s-p-500-year-end-momentum.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/best-stock-market-s... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6690043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6690043 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- gesman 13y agoStripe should do it too.
- reustle 13y agoI would like to see Stripe and Square join forces
- nfoz 13y agoSquipe!
- Apocryphon 13y agoSquire.
- ftay 13y agoStare?
- gesman 13y agostrip-square
- Gnewt 13y agoFully 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 13y agoDoes Square usage have any network effects?