Square, a financial services firm co-founded by now-former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has changed its name to Block. Square has expanded outside banking services, as seen by its recent acquisition of a majority share in music streaming provider Tidal, which Block is citing to justify the new moniker.
The new name, starting Dec. 10, “acknowledges the company’s growth” and “creates room for further growth,” according to a release from Jack Dorsey’s payments behemoth. On the New York Stock Exchange, Block will continue to trade under the ticker SQ.
In a statement, Square cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey said, “We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs.” “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.”
Dorsey co-founded Square in 2009, with an emphasis on in-person payments and the company’s namesake card reader, which allowed consumers to accept credit card payments using their smartphones. Square, situated in San Francisco, has since added a peer-to-peer digital banking software and small business lending, as well as a bank licence and the ability to trade cryptocurrency and stocks. The company has acquired Afterpay, a buy-now, pay-later service, and Tidal, Jay-music Z’s streaming service. It’s also tripling down on bitcoin via TBD, a cryptocurrency-focused company.
Square Crypto, a separate division of the corporation “dedicated to advancing Bitcoin,” will change its name to Spiral as part of the makeover.
In a statement, Block explained that 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.”
After heading both Twitter and Square since 2015, Dorsey stood down from his other position as CEO of Twitter on Monday. He feels Twitter is “ready to move on from its founders,” and that he will now be able to devote more time to Square’s expanding portfolio. However, Dorsey is anticipated to speak about his interest in bitcoin.
The announcement comes about a month after Facebook renamed itself Meta to reflect CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s aim to create a virtual environment termed the metaverse. In a similar step six years ago, Google renamed itself Alphabet to represent different lines of business.
As consumers turned to digital payments, Square was one of the greatest beneficiaries in 2020. Investors are shifting away from higher-growth tech stocks, with shares down about 2% so far this year.