
Square Files Confidential IPO - ryanmonroe
http://www.wsj.com/articles/payments-startup-square-files-confidential-ipo-1437782181
======
jackgavigan
_> "..spawning copycats like PayPal’s Here card-swiping device and similar
systems from Amazon.com Inc. and Intuit Inc."_

Actually, Intuit came up with the idea for using mobile phones to accept card
payments in 2007. They ran trials in the Bay Area in summer 2008, launched
GoPayment properly in early 2009 (with a Bluetooth reader supporting various
feature phones), and launched an iPhone app in August 2009. Inner fence had
already created a card terminal app for the iPhone in late 2008 (albeit
without a reader device).

Square announced their card reader in December 2009 and didn't actually launch
until the following May.

~~~
unavoidable
Once again proving that there are very few new _ideas_ out there. It's all
about better execution.

~~~
pbreit
Converting the Mag-stripe into an audio signal that could be sent through the
headphone jack was pretty clever and enabled very cheap devices. And correct
me if I'm wrong but I believe square was first there.

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chkuendig
Can anybody explain why a company would want to file for an IPO in
confidentiality?

Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the company to get some PR going before
the roadshow starts?

Unless they just want to test the waters and intend to pull the IPO in case
they wont get the valuation they hoped for... (which again would be a terrible
signal for potential IPO investors)

~~~
dmurray
They don't have to publish all of their financials just yet. With the
confidential IPO process, they can send in their mostly-correct figures and go
through some back-and-forth with the SEC to ensure they are reporting earnings
etc in a manner that satisfies the SEC. If they disclosed their figures
publicly, as larger companies going public are required to do, they risk a
backlash from investors or the media when they later revise their figures,
even if due to an honest mistake. Keeping their figures secret from
competitors, suppliers and customers for as long as possible is also a
competitive advantage.

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jgalt212
To me, Square seems a bit rudderless, but to others I'm sure they take that as
being opportunistic. Despite Stripe's valuation, most hold that credit card
processing fees are not the keys to riches.

Their lending operation is pretty interesting. If structured as a payday loan
operation for businesses, it can be quite profitable albeit fraught with
regulatory and/or reputation risk. If not structured as a payday loan biz, I
don't think there's much meat there. Low credit borrowers won't repay, and
higher credit borrowers can seek credit from other sources a much lower rates.
e.g. the securitized market. e.g. it's much cheaper for a business owner to
borrow against his house to fund his biz than for he or she to borrow from
Square.

Such a payday loan biz was just bid on Shartank.

[http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/assessing-a-
kevin-o...](http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/assessing-a-kevin-oleary-
investment-on-shark-tank/?_r=0)

~~~
larzang
The business I work for uses Square Stands for POS, and we've noticed they've
been steadily adding additional paid value-adds mostly relating to customer
contact/retention to their dashboard system.

They don't seem to be confining themselves to processing and loans for
increasing revenue, but are trying to become a basic ERP/marketing provider as
well. Sage/Moneris already does the same thing so it makes sense.

------
iiiggglll
Housing is about to get even more expensive in SF...

~~~
dylanjermiah
How so?

~~~
ChuckMcM
Many times, when a bay area company IPOs, a number of people suddenly have a
lot of now liquid wealth. (well depending on lock outs in 90 - 180 days) It is
not uncommon for those people to want to get off the rent/mortgage treadmill
and they will convert their stock into a house because stocks go up and down,
but buying a house for cash means you always have a nice place to come home
to. And that drives up prices as houses are already scarce.

~~~
brianwawok
How many people work for square?

~~~
ChuckMcM
Here is a different answer, Zillow[1] seems to think there are about 1,200
homes (approximately) are for sale in San Francisco. If 120 people buy homes
for cash it takes 10% of the available inventory off the market.

[1] [http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/San-Francisco-
CA/pmf,pf...](http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/San-Francisco-
CA/pmf,pf_pt/20330_rid/1_pnd/38.011853,-121.444245,36.919705,-122.665101_rect/9_zm/)

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toblender
Does anyone know where to find IPO dates? I can't seem to find the day that
the IPO will take place. In this case they didn't fully finish their filing,
but other ones such as BOX, I didn't find out about the IPO until the actual
day.

~~~
narrowrail
In order to participate in an IPO, one must be a customer of one of the
underwriting banks (special exceptions may exist), these banks would let you
know of the exact dates as they become firm. One cannot determine exact dates
just from an S-1 filing, as the companies still have to go through their whole
roadshow/ investor wooing period. If you want to see the SEC's list of
companies that intend to go public, it's on their site:

[http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-
edgar?company=&CIK=&type=s...](http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-
edgar?company=&CIK=&type=s-1&owner=include&count=40&action=getcurrent)

------
hooo
That must mean they had trouble raising more privately!

~~~
adventured
They may also be hoping to ride PayPal's rich valuation.

With investors awarding such extreme valuations to Facebook, Netflix, Amazon,
Twitter, PayPal, LinkedIn - Square might just think they can land a $10+
billion public value.

~~~
mikeyouse
I like the conspiracy theory that Square filed to IPO in hopes of forcing a
quick acquisition by Google / Apple / Amazon / Paypal so that Jack could go
take over the CEO position at Twitter. Clearly unlikely but the intrigue is
fun.

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dang
Please don't swap out original URLs with Google links, even when the URL is
paywalled. HN requires original URLs.

It's ok, though, to post a comment to the thread explaining to people how they
can read an article. In fact, someone almost always does.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Here's how you can read the article ;)

[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC0QqQIwAGoVChMIlNyC6tf1xgIVCjqICh0RrwDx&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fpayments-
startup-square-files-confidential-
ipo-1437782181&ei=7DCzVZS2Dor0oASR3oKIDw&usg=AFQjCNHJ7NRNaSYZZYKU7ggfZENGqxlOyg&sig2=kt1eSFUU_zu-Q0U-I1jvPA&bvm=bv.98717601,d.cGU)

~~~
djfergus
Who has the iOS compatible bookmarklet that will let me do this with one tap?

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incepted
Non paywall link: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/payments-startup-square-files-
co...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/payments-startup-square-files-confidential-
ipo-1437782181)

