US payment platform Square, agreed to acquire all shares in buy now, pay later giant Afterpay
(ASX:APT) for $39 billion via a court-approved arrangement.
The acquisition aims to deliver financial products and services to more consumers and drive incremental revenue for merchants of all sizes.
Afterpay serves over 16 million consumers and nearly 100,000 merchants globally, allowing consumers to spend and maintain financial control at the same time.
Square plans to integrate Afterpay into its existing seller and cash app, allowing merchants to offer BNPL at checkout. Afterpay consumers will have the ability to manage their installment payments and discover merchants and BNPL offers directly in the cash app.
Square’s cash app leader Brian Grassadonia said, “Afterpay will help deepen and reinforce the connections between our Cash App and Seller ecosystems, and accelerate our ability to offer a rich suite of commerce capabilities to Cash App customers.”
For Square, BNPL moves away from traditional credit and provides merchants new ways to grow their sales in omnichannel commerce.
Afterpay co-CEOs Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar said, "by combining with Square, we will further accelerate our growth in the U.S. and globally, offer access to a new category of in-person merchants, and provide a broader platform of new and valuable capabilities and services to our merchants and consumers."
The closing of the transaction is expected in the first quarter of 2022.
Shares in Afterpay
(ASX:APT) are trading 22.1 per cent higher at $117.99.
