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Popular mobile payments platform Square announced today that it has agreed to acquire Australian financial technology company Afterpay via a multi-billion recommended court-approved “Scheme of Arrangement.”
Square to Acquire Afterpay for $29B
The Jack Dorsey-led company said the deal would see it acquire all of Afterpay’s issued shares for $29 billion (A$39 billion) based on the closing price of Square common stock as of July 30th, 2021. The transaction is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2022 and paid in all stocks, should certain closing conditions be met.
The terms will see Afterpay shareholders receive a fixed conversion rate of 0.375 shares of Square Class A common stock for every Afterpay ordinary share they hold on the record date. The report noted that Square might decide to pay up to 1% of the total amount in cash.
Square will also establish a secondary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) to enable Afterpay shareholders to trade Square shares via CHESS Depositary Interests (CDIs) on the stock exchange.
Upon completion of the transaction, Afterpay’s executives, including co-founders and co-CEOs, will join Square to help lead Aferpay’s businesses.
Afterpay Users to Access Bitcoin Through Cash App
Afterpay is a leading “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) platform operating in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. Following next year’s acquisition, Square will integrate Afterpay into its Seller and Cash App platforms.
This will enable even the smallest merchants to offer BNPL to customers at checkout, allowing Afterpay users to make payments in installments directly from Cash App. As part of the integration, over seven million customers using Afterpay will be able to access the benefits of Cash App’s features such as money transfer, bitcoin, and stock purchases, among others.
Cash App customers will also benefit from the integration as it will allow them to discover merchants and BNPL offers within the app.
Square’s founder and CEO Jack Dorsey believes both companies are working towards making the financial system more fair, accessible, and inclusive, which gives them a “shared purpose.”
“Together, we can better connect our Cash App and Seller ecosystems to deliver even more compelling products and services for merchants and consumers, putting the power back in their hands,” Dorsey said.
Square Continues to Drive BTC Adoption
Meanwhile, the planned acquisition of Afterpay is just one of Square’s latest moves to take Bitcoin to the mainstream. In July, Jack Dorsey revealed that his company is creating a new DeFi business that focuses on BTC. As reported, the project will be an open-source platform for developers to non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services.
The company is also building a hardware bitcoin wallet to promote the mainstream adoption of the cryptocurrency and has partnered with Adam Back’s Blockstream to launch a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility in the United States.
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