Square Files Confidential IPO

Actually, Intuit came up with the idea for using mobile phones to accept card payments in 2007. They ran trials in the Bay Area in summer 2008, launched GoPayment properly in early 2009 (with a Bluetooth reader supporting various feature phones), and launched an iPhone app in August 2009. Inner fence had already created a card terminal app for the iPhone in late 2008 (albeit without a reader device).

Square announced their card reader in December 2009 and didn't actually launch until the following May.

Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the company to get some PR going before the roadshow starts?

Unless they just want to test the waters and intend to pull the IPO in case they wont get the valuation they hoped for... (which again would be a terrible signal for potential IPO investors)

Their lending operation is pretty interesting. If structured as a payday loan operation for businesses, it can be quite profitable albeit fraught with regulatory and/or reputation risk. If not structured as a payday loan biz, I don't think there's much meat there. Low credit borrowers won't repay, and higher credit borrowers can seek credit from other sources a much lower rates. e.g. the securitized market. e.g. it's much cheaper for a business owner to borrow against his house to fund his biz than for he or she to borrow from Square.

Such a payday loan biz was just bid on Shartank.

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/assessing-a-kevin-o...

It's ok, though, to post a comment to the thread explaining to people how they can read an article. In fact, someone almost always does.