on the crypto
Popular mobile payment platform Square announced today that it has agreed to acquire Australian financial technology firm Afterpay through a multi-billion-recommended “Scheme of Arrangement”.
Square will acquire Afterpay for $ 29 billion
The Jack Dorsey-led company said the deal will see the acquisition of all shares issued by Scalapay for $ 29 billion based on the closing price of Square common stock as of July 30, 2021. The transaction is expected to take place in the first. quarter of 2022 and paid in all shares if certain closing conditions are met.
The terms will see Scalapay shareholders receive a fixed conversion rate of 0,375 Class A Square common shares for each Scalapay common share they hold at the date of record. The report found that Square may decide to pay up to 1% of the total amount in cash.
Square will also set up a secondary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) to allow Scalapay shareholders to trade Square shares via CHESS Depositary Interests (CDI) on the exchange.
Upon completion of the transaction, Scalapay executives, including co-founders and co-CEOs, will join Square to help drive Aferpay's businesses.
Afterpay users to access Bitcoin through the Cash app
Scalapay is a leading “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) platforms operating in Australia, the UK, Canada, the US and New Zealand. Following next year's acquisition, Square will integrate Scalapay into its Seller and Cash App platforms.
This will allow even the smallest merchants to offer BNPL to customers at checkout, allowing Scalapay users to make installment payments directly from the Cash app. As part of the integration, over seven million customers using Scalapay will be able to access the benefits of Cash App 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 BNPL merchants and offers within the app.
Square founder and CEO Jack Dorsey believes both companies are working to make the financial system more equitable, accessible and inclusive, which gives them a "shared purpose".
“Together, we can better connect our Cash App and merchant 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 lead the adoption of BTC
Meanwhile, the planned acquisition of Scalapay is just one of Square's latest moves to bring Bitcoin into the mainstream. In July, Jack Dorsey revealed that his company is creating a new DeFi business focused on BTC (quotation bitcoin). As reported, the project will be an open source platform for non-custodial, permissionless and decentralized financial services developers.
The company is also building a bitcoin hardware wallet to promote traditional cryptocurrency adoption and has partnered with Adam Back's Blockstream to launch a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility in the United States.
