Square, the payments startup led by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, has changed its name to Block Inc. in order to grow beyond payments and into emerging technologies such as blockchain.
Since its launch in 2009, the company has grown to include Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975 as businesses, and the name change allows for even more expansion.
The Square name has become synonymous with the company’s seller business, which provides an integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services for sellers, and this move allows the seller business to own the Square brand it was built for.
What the company is saying about the name change
The company said, “Block is an overarching ecosystem of many businesses united by their purpose of economic empowerment and serves many people—individuals, artists, fans, developers, and sellers”
“We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs,” said Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Block. “Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.”
The name has many associated meanings for the company — building blocks, neighbourhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome.
The company stated that there would be no organizational changes and that its various business segments – Square, a peer-to-peer payment service – Cash App, music streaming service Tidal and TBD54566975, its bitcoin-focused financial services section, will maintain their individual brands. In extended trade, the stock was up roughly 1%.
Square Crypto, the unit “committed to advancing Bitcoin” within the digital payments company, will also change its name to Spiral. The new name will take effect on or around Dec. 10, according to Square, but the “SQ” ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange will remain unchanged.
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The move comes only days after Dorsey stepped down as Twitter’s chief executive officer. Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CTO, was unanimously appointed as CEO and a member of the Board by the company’s Board of Directors.
Square acquired $50 million worth of bitcoin before the surge of institutional interest that boosted the digital currency’s price to record highs this year, owing to Dorsey’s interest in the cryptocurrency. The company increased its bet in February, investing another $170 million on it.
