Visa buys a stake in rival Square
Visa has purchased a 10 percent piece of Square, according to documents seen by the WSJ. Square is best known for its smartphone-attached readers that make it easy for merchants (and even panhandlers) to accept credit cards. The company was started and is still headed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. It’s a surprise that Visa bought a piece of Square now, because it recently launched Visa Developer, software that will help merchants accept Visa payments more easily. At that point, it seemed like Visa wanted to take on rivals like Square and PayPal, not buy pieces of them.
Ironically, Visa SVP Mark Jamison recently decried efforts by Google, Apple and other tech giants to enter the payment market. “No other company in this space has yet to deliver the customer density, global reach and scale that will be available through Visa’s open platform,” he affirmed. However, those companies have clearly invaded Visa’s turf, so it seems to be hedging its bets by acquiring part of Square.
Source: WSJ
AIVAnet 