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Square to Investors: $1 Billion Valuation? Make It $2 Billion.

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Re: Square to Investors: $1 Billion Valuation? Make It $2 Billion.

#21

This is pretty ridiculous given that Square's market is a tiny fraction of retail, its distribution model is expensive, and it doesn't solve any of the problems with the payment industry. Granted, I'm a competitor, but $2 billion? Even $1 billion is absurd. Sigh.

You do realize "retail" is a multi-trillion dollar segment, right?

Yes. That's why I'm in it covering the 99.99% of cases that Square's 0.01% solution misses.

Re: Square to Investors: $1 Billion Valuation? Make It $2 Billion.

#22
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Square has proved they can build something people want, but they haven't proved it profitable.

How do you know they're not profitable? To the best of my knowledge, they've never released any public financial statements.

Usually when you're in the business of receiving and vending money, profits come naturally. Now, whether they've reached volume necessary to actually be profitable is a fair question but I have little doubt they've got a clear and well defined path to profitability if they aren't already there now.

Re: Square to Investors: $1 Billion Valuation? Make It $2 Billion.

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize "retail" is a multi-trillion dollar segment, right?

Yes. That's why I'm in it covering the 99.99% of cases that Square's 0.01% solution misses.

Investors aren't looking at what Square's offering now; they're looking at what Square can reasonably offer in the future, soon enough that their investment is "worth it". Square may only address 0.01% of the market now, but they might have a realistic plan for addressing 0.1% or 1% or 10% of the market, making them a billion to multi-billion dollar company.

If Square is able to convince investors that they've got mass market appeal then they can justify a multi-billion dollar valuation. Considering Visa invested an undisclosed amount in Square, they may actually have reason to command such a large valuation.

Re: Square to Investors: $1 Billion Valuation? Make It $2 Billion.

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Square has proved they can build something people want, but they haven't proved it profitable.

How do you know they're not profitable? To the best of my knowledge, they've never released any public financial statements. Usually when you're in the business of receiving and vending money, profits come naturally. Now, whether they've reached volume necessary to actually be profitable is a fair question but I have little doubt they've got a clear and well defined path to profitability if they aren't already there…

And you don't think that given they are going for a two billion dollar evaluation, if they were profitable, that would be well known?

Re: Square to Investors: $1 Billion Valuation? Make It $2 Billion.

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know they're not profitable? To the best of my knowledge, they've never released any public financial statements. Usually when you're in the business of receiving and vending money, profits come naturally. Now, whether they've reached volume necessary to actually be profitable is a fair question but I have little doubt they've got a clear and well defined path to profitability if they aren't already there…

And you don't think that given they are going for a two billion dollar evaluation, if they were profitable, that would be well known?

Nope. As a privately held company, they have zero interest in making their balance sheet public. They obviously have little trouble getting investment or making deals and have little to gain from publishing their finances.
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