Payments company Square has changed the name of its holding company to Block, becoming the latest technology company to differentiate the corporate entity from its brand.
Square was established in 2009 by chief executive and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. The company enables its customers to set up online shops, take card payments in person, access earnings faster and manage inventory.
In recent years, the company has added payments app Cash App, streaming service Tidal and TBD54566975, which is building an open developer platform to make it easier to access Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies.
The Square brand will be retained for the payments business, with the parent company becoming Block Inc.
“We built the Square brand for our seller business, which is where it belongs,” said Mr Dorsey. “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.”
Retaining brands
The company said there would be no organisational changes, with Square, Cash App, Tidal, and TBD54566975 retaining their brands. Square Crypto, which is a separate initiative dedicated to advancing bitcoin, will change its name to Spiral.
Square is the latest technology company to change its brand, with Facebook and Google also adopting new parent brands in recent years with Meta and Alphabet.
