Now that Jack Dorsey’s Square has finally made its IPO, a lot of things are happening. CNN Money reported that the IPO was a bust, a “moral victory for the unicorns,” but it seems that real money was actually made on the deal. Square, the mobile payments processing company, planned to make an IPO at $11-$13 a share, and came in lower than expected at $9. But Jack Dorsey himself made $290 on the IPO, and his stock appears to be surging.
Bloomberg reports that Square Inc. was up about 45% and that the price of the stock had risen to about $14.78. Dorsey holds a 22% stake in the company which translates to $912 million. He is also the CEO of Twitter, and his current net worth has reached a startling $1.7 billion, though he intends to give about half of the Square shares he owns away to charities.
The fact that Square’s IPO appears to be doing quite well is a beacon of hope for other small startups hoping to get big. As the company has already raised $243 million post-IPO, other companies with lofty dreams look on. James Angel, an associate professor of finance at Georgetown University, says that Square’s shares will do well because “they have been priced far below their range and because there [are] real opportunities for new startups.” The opportunities he sees could belong to any new startup now. Square has done it—others can, too.
Square’s valuation now sits at a candid $2.9 billion, and investors are likewise happy, even if it didn’t first appear that they would be. Earlier, Square promised investors a share price at $18.55 or higher, a number it did not meet—a potential embarrassment for the company. But those investors, Series E, received 10.3 million shares at $9 to make up for the difference in price.
Then the share price jumped and investors’ wallets flooded.
The headlines about Square’s IPO don’t look so shiny, but the money is real, says Business Insider. The prices will only go up from here.
