Twitter CEO’s company wants to acquire Afterpay for more than 24 billion euros – IT Pro – News

Square, a company of Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, is looking to acquire the Australian payment service Afterpay for $29 billion. That amounts to approximately 24.4 billion euros. Square pays that amount in stock.

Square and Australian Afterpay announce the acquisition in a press release. The boards of Square and Afterpay have both agreed to the takeover bid. Square’s offer is 30 percent higher than Afterpay’s closing price on Friday, although the company’s stock price rose sharply after the announcement on Monday.

“Square and Afterpay have a common goal. We built our business to make the financial system fairer, more accessible and more inclusive, and Afterpay has built a trusted brand aligned with those principles,” Dorsey said in a statement. “Together, we can better connect our Cash app and Seller ecosystems to deliver even more compelling products and services for merchants and consumers, putting power back in their hands.”

Square and Afterpay are both fintech companies. Square was founded in 2009 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and American businessman Jim McKelvey. It is an internet payment company that sells, among other things, a scanner that you plug into a Lightning or 3.5 mm port and that lets you scan the magnetic strip of a bank card. The company also sells cash register systems and cash handling software. The company also has a Cash app, which allows users to send money to each other.

Square wants to broaden its offering with the acquisition of Afterpay. Afterpay has been around since 2014 and allows users to purchase products and pay them interest-free in installments. Afterpay is originally an Australian company, but the service is also available in some European countries, including the United Kingdom, Norway and Spain. This is a different service than AfterPay from the Netherlands of the same name, which has been around since 2005. There are several other similar services worldwide, including Affirm and Klarna.

Square has been acquiring companies for some time now. The company acquired earlier this year for example, a majority stake in music streaming service Tidal. According to Jack Dorsey, the company did so to “find new ways for artists to support their work.” Square also recently set up a Bitcoin division called TBD.

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