Jack Dorsey's Square Changes Corporate Name To Block (businesswire.com) 26
Square, the financial services and digital payments company founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2010, announced today that it is changing its name to Block. From a press release: Block will be the name for the company as a corporate entity. The Square name has become synonymous with the company's Seller business, which provides an integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services for sellers, and this move allows the Seller business to own the Square brand it was built for. The change to Block acknowledges the company's growth. Since its start in 2009, the company has added Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975 as businesses, and the name change creates room for further growth. Block is an overarching ecosystem of many businesses united by their purpose of economic empowerment, and serves many people -- individuals, artists, fans, developers, and sellers.
The name change to Block distinguishes the corporate entity from its businesses, or building blocks. There will be no organizational changes, and Square, Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975 will continue to maintain their respective brands. A foundational workforce, which includes teams such as Counsel, People, and Finance, will continue to help guide the ecosystem at the corporate level. As a result of the name change, Square Crypto, a separate initiative of the company dedicated to advancing Bitcoin, will change its name to Spiral. The name has many associated meanings for the company -- building blocks, neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome. "We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs," said Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Block. "Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy."
The name change to Block distinguishes the corporate entity from its businesses, or building blocks. There will be no organizational changes, and Square, Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975 will continue to maintain their respective brands. A foundational workforce, which includes teams such as Counsel, People, and Finance, will continue to help guide the ecosystem at the corporate level. As a result of the name change, Square Crypto, a separate initiative of the company dedicated to advancing Bitcoin, will change its name to Spiral. The name has many associated meanings for the company -- building blocks, neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome. "We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs," said Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Block. "Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy."
Waiting for the obligatory Bitcoin joke... (Score:3)
[Smelled another brain fart?]
Anyway, I just came to see the best joke on how the Bitcoin division is going to Spiral down to nothing...
Don't look at me. I never have any Funny around here.
CEO of Block (Score:5, Funny)
Re: CEO of Block (Score:2)
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Don't worry, he'll just rename the company to The Block Chain in a few years, have shares shoots up like when Long Island Iced Tea Corp changed it's name to Long Blockchain Corp. and shares shot up 380% [cnn.com] and then have insider trading charges [cnn.com] /s
And H&R Block is just going to ignore this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Square, now Block, and H&R Block are both in the financial services arena. The latter has been around for a *while* and I can't imagine they wouldn't have some complaint about this name change to something so similar, but I can't decide if if I should get out the popcorn or not...
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No problem, they are now H&R Meta. ...or was it "HRnia"?
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Yeah. Merry Christmas, H&R Block lawyers!
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
...that certainly added a new dimension.
What's next (Score:2)
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That's a pretty catchy name (Score:2)
> TBD54566975
Boy, that's how you build brand recognition, all right.
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What? (Score:1)
To block what? They changed their name to block something. Why doesn't the headline say what?
Bandwagon effect (Score:2)
In the latest example of this craze, the company that makes all that iStuff is rebranding to "Apple". How lame is that?
Paid for marketing? (Score:2)
Is this post paid for advertising/marketing because it sure seems like it.
Searchable company name! (Score:2)
He "blocked" a former US President on Twitter (Score:1)
Name conflict? (Score:2)
First, I wonder what H&R will think about a financial related company named Block.
Second, congratulations to them on achieving a new dimension. And they have room to expand when they incorporate as Tesseract.
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Especially given that Block (not H&R) owns Cash App, which offers an income tax preparation service that it bought when Intuit bought the rest of Credit Karma.