Jack Dorsey might be done with Twitter (TWTR) but that doesn’t mean he’s completely retired. The resignation from Twitter seems to have given Jack a much-needed reset, as he changed the name of his other business venture Square. Talk about a fresh start.
Square (SQ), a financial services and digital payments company, founded by Jack, is expanding beyond the payments space as it announced plans to include blockchain products and recently undertook a stake in a music streaming platform. The company’s expansion led to the CEO announcing a name change, which reflects that pivot with Square now becoming ‘Block’. The change doesn’t do away with Square completely as the latter now becomes a subsidiary of the overarching Block brand. The ticker stays the same but gives the company more flexibility to push the boundaries. It’s a perfect way to integrate its new crypto initiatives in the works since July — the company is focused on building an open-developer platform with multiple decentralized finance applications like crypto trading.
Why it matters
Unlike Facebook’s recent change to Meta due to a PR refresh, Square’s alteration is actually a sign of good things. The company’s outgrown its training wheels and is now looking to make a dent in the broader finance space — the name change is more in line with Google’s conversion to Alphabet.