Square Inc (SQ) changes corporate name to Block

Payments company Square, Inc. (SQ) has said its ever-expanding businesses on multiple fronts prompted the company to change its corporate name to Block to encompass all its interests.

The announcement comes days after Square Inc founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter which he helped co-found in 2006. The San Francisco-based Square Inc’s businesses include Square, Cash App, music streaming service Tidal, and Bitcoin-centric enterprise TBD.

Square Inc will officially become Block on Dec 10, the company said in a release on Wednesday.

In the release, the company also said there would be no organizational changes due to name change, and its brands will continue to function as they have been doing.

Square Inc’s ticker symbol SQ on the NYSE exchange will also remain as it is.

Square Inc’s primary purpose of economic empowerment will remain unchanged after it becomes Block, Dorsey said in the release, adding that the Square brand chiefly catered to its seller business.

The move comes on the heels of Facebook’s rebranding itself as Meta, aimed at giving a more symbolic look to the social media company’s diverse businesses, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook.com. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been vocal about its Metaverse plans lately.

The social media company faced repeated allegations over its corporate practices, including regarding privacy, hate speech, and its alleged role in Capitol Hill riots.

Some of the allegations are still under investigation by US regulators.

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Source: Pixabay

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Square’s dig at Meta

Interestingly, Square took a dig at Facebook’s new name on Wednesday. In a tweet, it said: “Not to get all meta on you… but we’re going to! Block references the neighborhood blocks where we find our sellers, a blockchain, block parties full of music, obstacles to overcome, a section of code, building blocks, and of course, tungsten cubes.”

The name change will not affect the company’s purpose, vision, structure, or operations, it added.

Earlier this week, Twitter's board of directors had appointed Indian-origin Parag Agrawal as the company's CEO. Agrawal served the company in various leadership roles during his time with the company for over a decade. Before taking the new role, he was the chief technology officer (CTO).