Apple Mulled Acquisition Offer for Square, but Deal Looks Unlikely for Now

[samcraig]

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So much better than those big fried, sugary, crispy doughnuts from Korean copycats that cost 99c and have a hole in them.

Only $4.99. Password and user name required. The hole is an in-app purchase.

Recipe from California, baked in China.

It's lighter. A completely flat design. It's forward thinking. The highest whole wheat count in any doughnut. It's been crafted from one single piece of dough via a meticulously calibrated machine.

We've also patented the hell out of it.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

If retailers don't switch over to chip and pin by the end of the year, they become liable for any fraud activity. EMV is coming to the US quickly.

Except it isn't.
Too much capital expenditure for zero ROI from a retailer.

 

[drewyboy]

Why Apple WON'T buy Square

They simply won't buy Square because Square's board wants around 8 BILLION. I'm sure Apple "mulled" it over till that price was brought before them... then they laughed. Remember, Apple's largest acquisition to date was 400-500 million. Apple is not Google. Apple is not Facebook. They don't spend obscene amounts of money on an over hyped, over inflated feature. As plenty of investors with their head on right have said, valuations are completely out of control right now for software companies.

Apple should just keep rolling their own. Hire away some of the top talent. I mean heck, there is a LOT you can do before blowing through 8 billion. Apple has over 600 million accounts and "most" have credit cards attached. To put it in perspective, Amazon only has 224 million accounts. My point is, Apple can do it by themselves. Square is asking for an asinine amount. Sounds a lot like Dropbox 2.0 to me. It's a feature. Every big player is making their own and soon Square will be in the exact same position as dropbox... facing being relegated.

 

[guzhogi]

While it'll be good for the US to move over to the chip & PIN method, it'll take awhile. So many retailers don't want to pay the upfront costs of updating their card readers.

However, I like the Square reader. Seems handy if you're doing a small-time selling thing.

I also like the card reader cases they use at Apple stores. The cases add quite a bit of bulk, but seem more heavy-duty, plus have barcode scanners.

I kind of wish Apple would add NFC functionality to its iPhones. I don't know too much about NFC, so please correct if I wrong, but it would be useful if you could use it as an ID. Some schools, businesses, etc. use those proximity cards to unlock doors, maybe use it for pulled printing, and of course for cafeteria point of sale terminals.

 

[selfsilent]

while Apple would be able to use Square's payment expertise.

50 million Apps are downloaded each day, lets say that 10 million are paid for.
How many Square payments are made each day?

So, come again, who has the payment expertise?

Why would Apple want a payment structure that's only good in the US and nowhere else in the world where they use Chip & Pin?

 

[TheAppleFairy]

50 million Apps are downloaded each day, lets say that 10 million are paid for.
How many Square payments are made each day?

So, come again, who has the payment expertise?

Why would Apple want a payment structure that's only good in the US and nowhere else in the world where they use Chip & Pin?

Selling their own items that deposit fund in their own accounts is different than a 3rd party pay and market system.

*Though I can't see why they can't figure it out, unless they want something in Square's software that has a patent.

 

[lkrupp]

If retailers don't switch over to chip and pin by the end of the year, they become liable for any fraud activity. EMV is coming to the US quickly.

No such thing, no such law, no such liability. No.

 

[mozumder]

Square sucks as a POS product.

It doesn't even include inventory tracking, among the most basic of capabilities it's missing.

 

[Peel]

Because as far as I know, the US are still a long long long long way away from the switch to modern payment methods (the US being quite literally the only country still using a 30 year old technology, or not currently transitioning).

US will be switching to EMV soon. "Liability shift" takes place on October 2015. After that date whichever party (bank or vendor) in a transaction who has not adopted chip technology will be held liable for any fraud. This is how the change was instigated in Europe, and was quite effective in prodding slow adopters to get on board.

No such thing, no such law, no such liability. No.

No, it's not law, the liability isn't imposed by government, but by the credit card companies, Visa, Mastercard, etc. They are the ones saying adopt the new tech or we won't pay you if fraud is suspected.

 

[TheAppleFairy]

Square sucks as a POS product.

It doesn't even include inventory tracking, among the most basic of capabilities it's missing.

What items beside inventory management are missing? https://squareup.com/help/en-us/article/5120-inventory-management

 

[unplugme71]

So as a Square user for my business, I pay 2.75% transaction fee. If Apple buys this, will I now be paying 30%?

----------

Square sucks as a POS product.

It doesn't even include inventory tracking, among the most basic of capabilities it's missing.

Square is expanding its tools slowly. For now, I've used QuickBooks Pro to manage everything.

 

[sniffies]

It's a half-baked idea, as your business plan is full of holes, and you are asking too much dough. My eyes glaze over when I read comments like that.

Applauds and upvotes

 

[mozumder]

What items beside inventory management are missing? https://squareup.com/help/en-us/article/5120-inventory-management

Seriously? like everything else.

You can't even print barcode labels for your products.

 

[QWERTYMac7]

Square only works with the magnetic strip? Apple, stay away

In Europe, we have long switched to chip + pin for debit and credit cards. Much safer.
One day, the US will follow.

I rarely take swiped payments from Square, I enter them manually - true, it costs me a bit more, but my clients are typically 1,000 miles (1,800 KM) or more away.

I get paid within 24 hours - far faster than waiting 30+ days for a check to arrive by mail and clear my bank.

$10,000+ per year is what I receive from Square on these types of transactions.

ALL of the other options charge more per transaction than Square.

I AM a big fan of Square.

 

[hagar]

I rarely take swiped payments from Square, I enter them manually - true, it costs me a bit more, but my clients are typically 1,000 miles (1,800 KM) or more away.

I get paid within 24 hours - far faster than waiting 30+ days for a check to arrive by mail and clear my bank.

$10,000+ per year is what I receive from Square on these types of transactions.

ALL of the other options charge more per transaction than Square.

I AM a big fan of Square.

Funny that you refer to checks. Does that also still exist in the US??
PayPal charges 3% for direct payments. How much does Square?

 

[Antares]

How useful is this technology if the United States is pretty much the only country left that hasn't started using chip and PIN technology for cards? This seems like a pointless acquisition for Apple; since this is likely to be obsolete 3 years from now.

Isn't that a little bit optimistic? In the US, millions upon millions of card readers would have to be transitioned over to chip readers. Any transition would be a huge expense to businesses and card companies. Even when they transition, they would still have to be backward compatible to make sure everyone is covered. This kind of transition would take a decade at the least. Also, how would this work with reward cards, membership cards and gift cards. These would have to be chipped as well…increasing the cost. The US is a different beast when it comes to magnetic stripped cards.

 

[TheAppleFairy]

Seriously? like everything else.

You can't even print barcode labels for your products.

Well since we can see there is inventory management, I was looking to see if there was anything that was really missing that is required by your business.

Maybe a barcode printer is in the near future, but I doubt most people want/need it.

 

[olowott]

never used it before but if two tech giants are on your case, then its good

 

[Wilsonium]

Plastic cards with magnetic strip is a product nearing the end of its life cycle, so why would Apple want to invest in that? There are a lot more interesting options for payment than Square.

If for nothing else, the payment processing infrastructure. It's a foot in the door Apple does not have. Yes they have all those iTunes accounts with credit card numbers attached but using them would be no different than Google "forwarding" the transaction. One thing I hate about Google Wallet is that transaction detail is lost on my credit card statement... everything looks like a google wallet transaction. If they operate like traditional payment processors, credit card companies will be more eager to play ball.

 

[peterbaby]

US will be switching to EMV soon. "Liability shift" takes place on October 2015. After that date whichever party (bank or vendor) in a transaction who has not adopted chip technology will be held liable for any fraud.

I did not know that, thanks!

 

[randian]

If they operate like traditional payment processors, credit card companies will be more eager to play ball.

I would think the credit card companies prefer the way Google Wallet works. You don't get rewards or point bonuses when you use GW because it triggers the wrong transaction codes. That's a big savings for them.

 

[mozumder]

Well since we can see there is inventory management, I was looking to see if there was anything that was really missing that is required by your business.

Maybe a barcode printer is in the near future, but I doubt most people want/need it.

No, it doesn't have inventory management. Square is lying when they say they have inventory management when they call their sales report as "inventory management". lol Since they have no inventory management, they are trying to brand their sales report as that instead.

It has a barcode scanner, but no printer?

Can you tell me what you're supposed to scan if there's no barcode on the item?

As you can see, Square didn't think their cunning plan through.

 

[Nikiaf]

Isn't that a little bit optimistic? In the US, millions upon millions of card readers would have to be transitioned over to chip readers. Any transition would be a huge expense to businesses and card companies. Even when they transition, they would still have to be backward compatible to make sure everyone is covered. This kind of transition would take a decade at the least. Also, how would this work with reward cards, membership cards and gift cards. These would have to be chipped as well…increasing the cost. The US is a different beast when it comes to magnetic stripped cards.

A decade?! It took only a few years to do it in Canada, and apparently around 5 in the UK. All they have to do is replace cards as they expire, which would put the whole process well under a decade. Plus, there should be extra incentive to do it because the US is already way behind the rest of the world in this area, and people lose confidence when they hear a story like what happened at Target.

Also, reward/loyalty cards aren't even worth considering in this discussion. That's something else entirely. There's no need to chip them, I've used gift cards that still use the magnetic stripe; the new transaction terminals won't magically not have the reader for it anymore.