Twitter founder Jack Dorsey splashes £20bn on ‘buy now, pay later’ firm 

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey splashes £20bn on ‘buy now, pay later’ firm, making it the biggest ever buyout of an Australian company

  • Jack Dorsey’s financial services firm Square has purchased Afterpay
  • Afterpay’s stock stood at at just over A$12 (£8.64) in early 2020
  • But it was at A$114.80 (£86.62) last night while Square’s share price also rose 11.4 per cent yesterday

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s financial services firm will pay more than £20 billion for a consumer credit pioneer

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s financial services firm will pay more than £20 billion for a consumer credit pioneer creating a global payments giant. 

The sale of Afterpay – founded in 2014 and known as Clearpay in Britain – to Square Incorporated has been seen as a major milestone in the explosion of the ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) consumer credit model. 

The deal is the biggest ever buyout of an Australian firm, and locks in a share price run that took the stock from just over A$12 (£8.64) in early 2020, to A$114.80 (£86.62) last night. Square’s share price also rose 11.4 per cent yesterday. 

The sale will also hand £1.3 billion each to founders Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen will make $1.8 billion each. China’s Tencent Holdings, which paid £216 million for 5 per cent of Afterpay in 2020, would pocket £1.2 billion. 

Analysts at Truist Securities said they expect Square – founded by Dorsey in 2009 – will invest heavily. Advocates of the BNPL model, which charges retailers a fee so their shoppers can buy their products with small loans, claim it will replace credit cards for everyday purchases.    

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