Though this transaction was done about five years ago, VISA only recently disclosed the details of the investment in Square. VISA owns 10% of Square’s class ‘A’ trading shares, which represents about 1%, of the company. This is different form the speculation that it owns 10% of Square shares as reported by earlier online publications
Square, co-founded and run by Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, invented a device which plugs into smartphones or tablets, so credit cards can be accepted almost anywhere.
VISA has been working on payment services technology of its own including Visa payWave, which allows users to pass a card over a terminal to record a payment.
The revelation of VISA’s stake in Square brought about an 8% rise in Square’s shares on Friday to close at $9.30.
