Square has revolutionized the payment industry for small businesses, particularly very small businesses, by making it possible for them to accept credit and debit cards from an iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone. The company did so by charging modest fees compared to the traditional credit card industry and offering next-day deposits, a killer feature for companies operating on tight margins and low budgets.
It has used this formula to sweep up enough merchants to conduct $20 billion in transactions in 2013, which translates to revenues of $550 million. In the world of tech startups, that's more than all the money ever owned in all the world, but the problem is that Square's own margins are even thinner than its merchants'.
Which is why, according to The Journal, Square lost some $110 million last year, even more than it lost the year before. Worse, Square is running through the hundreds of millions of dollars the company has already raised through venture capitalists.
Square's fees are typically 2.75 percent to process a transaction, but roughly 80 percent of that fee goes to right to Visa and MasterCard. Square also got a sweet deal with Starbucks to handle the coffee giant's credit card transactions in 2012, but that deal has even thinner margins for Square. The company lost $20 million on Starbucks in 2013 alone.
All of which is why, according to the story's unnamed sources, Square has held and is holding informal talks with the big boys in tech about buying the company. Someone with deep pockets could absorb Square's losses without batting an eye and grow the business to become profitable.