Shares in the mobile payment services company Square Inc rose sharply on Friday after Visa Inc disclosed the details of its ownership stake in the company.
While Visa’s stake amounts to about 1 percent of the company and the stake was established at least five years ago, investors interpreted the announcement as a major endorsement of Square by Visa, the world’s largest payment processing company.
According to a regulatory filing, Visa owns 4.2 million of Square’s Class B shares. While Class B shares are not traded publicly, Visa could convert up to 3.5 million of its Class B shares to Class A, which would give Visa a 9.99 percent ownership of that class of shares.
However, that conversion would amount to just 1 percent of Square’s total outstanding shares.
Visa’s calculation of a 9.99 percent ownership is based on the assumption that no other Square’s Class B shareholders did a similar conversion before Visa did.
The disclosure, known by its regulatory filing name 13G, is how major investors disclose an existing stake in a company. Because Square only went public three months ago, this is the first time the public is getting details about Visa’s ownership.
Visa announced an investment in Square in 2011, but at the time did not disclose the terms of that transaction. Other companies have disclosed similar details about their existing ownerships of Square, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Class B shares are not typically converted to Class A shares unless the owner is looking to sell the position and Visa did not disclose any plans to do so.
However, if Visa were to convert its Class B shares into Class A shares, it would make Visa the second-largest owner in Square behind the investment manager Capital Research & Management Co’s 12.7 percent stake.
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.
Square, co-founded and run by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, went public in November last year. The Square device facilitates credit card transactions by plugging into smartphones or tablets, allowing credit cards to be accepted almost anywhere.
Square shares rose 8 percent to close at US$9.30.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS