Carter is expected to join the Square board when the deal
closes, while Tidal will operate independently within Square, alongside the
Seller and Cash App ecosystems, the company said in a press release.
The pairing of a financial services company and a music
streaming platform comes off as a bit random, but in a series of tweets, Dorsey
said the Tidal investment lines up with Square's original mission to help small
sellers enter the economy and grow.
"Given what Square has been able to do for sellers of
all sizes and individuals through Cash App, we believe we can now work for
artists to see the same success for them, and us," Dorsey wrote on
Twitter. "We're going to start small and focus on the most critical needs
of artists and growing their fanbases. Square created ecosystems of tools for
sellers & individuals, and we'll do the same for artists. We'll work on
entirely new listening experiences to bring fans closer together, simple
integrations for merch sales, modern collaboration tools, and new complementary
revenue streams."
Last month, billionaire buddies Dorsey and Carter announced
they were giving 500 bitcoin to a new endowment set up as a blind irrevocable
trust focused on Africa and India. Bitcoin is already a growing focus within
Square and its Cash App, and is clearly a focal point in these two
partnerships.
In its most recent earnings report, Square said its
bitcoin-enabled Cash App generated $1.76 billion of bitcoin revenue and $41
million of bitcoin gross profit during the fourth quarter. The company has also
purchased $170 million worth of bitcoin since October 2020. The investment
represents about 5% of the company's total assets as of the end of 2020.
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