Jack Dorsey Changing Square to Block
ZFX – Square changed its name to Block as it’s focusing on technologies like blockchain and expanding beyond its original credit-card-reader business.
Payment giant Jack Dorsey said in an announcement of the new name, effective Dec. 10, “recognizes the company’s growth” and “creates room for further growth.” Block will still trade under the SQ ticker on the New York Stock Exchange.
“We built the Square brand for our seller business, which is where it belongs,” Dorsey, co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Block is indeed a new name, but our goal of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help improve access to the economy.”
Dorsey founded Square back in 2009 with a focus on direct payments and card readers alike. It allows people to accept credit card payments via smartphones. San Francisco-based Square has since added peer-to-peer digital banking apps and small business loans, accepted bank charters, and started offering crypto and stock trading. The company has acquired buy-now-pay-later provider Afterpay and Jay-Z’s music streaming service Tidal. It also mimics bitcoin with a crypto-focused business called TBD.
As part of Square’s rebranding, Square Crypto, a separate section of the company “dedicated to advancing Bitcoin,” will change its name to Spiral.
Naming the company ‘Block’ “has many related meanings for companies — the building blocks, the neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, the community that gathers at a block party full of music, blockchain, pieces of code, and obstacles to overcome,” Block said in a statement.
Dorsey stepped down from his other job as Twitter CEO on Monday after running Twitter and Square since 2015. He said he believed Twitter was “ready to move on from its founder” and he would now have more time to dedicate himself to Square’s growing portfolio. . But Dorsey is also expected to focus on his interest in cryptocurrencies.
The news comes roughly a month after Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to build a virtual world called the Metaverse. Google famously changed its name to Alphabet six years ago in a similar move to mirror its other line of business.
Square is one of the biggest winners of 2020 as consumers turn to digital payments. The stock is down about 2% so far this year, as investors turn away from higher-growth tech names.
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