Square Explores IPO

One down, one to go. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Jack Dorsey's company, Square, is in the early stages of an IPO. Dorsey has reportedly held talks with potential underwriters Goldman Sachs GS and Morgan Stanley MS. Dorsey is best known as being the co-creator of Twitter TWTR whose shares went public on November 7. The Journal reported that a decision has yet to be made with no banks being hired. Spokesmen at Square, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs all declined to comment. The Journal reported that two public-company veterans has been made part of the Square team. Sarah Friar was hired from Salesforce.com CRM to assume the CFO and Operations Lead at Square. Friar brings with her 11 years as a managing director at Goldman Sachs. Square bolstering its corporate roster is following the same path that Twitter has taken. Earlier this year, Twitter hired Cynthia Gaylor, a Morgan Stanley veteran, to run its corporate development team. This led many analysts and investors to correctly speculate that Twitter was gearing up for an upcoming IPO.

Square allows merchants to accept debit and credit card payments on a consumer's smartphone or tablet through a user-friendly app. The app supports manually entering the card details, or the consumer can swipe the card through a reader that attaches to the smartphone or tablet.

Following Dorsey's comments that he is pleased with how smooth the Twitter IPO was handled, it would not surprise many if Square were to join Twitter as a public company. A strong indication that Square is heading to Wall Street is the recent bolstering of its management team.

David Viniar, a former Goldman Sachs Vice President joined the company's board of directors on October 30, replacing Starbucks SBUX CEO Howard Shultz. Shultz agreed to a one-year term, following his company's $25 million investment in Square in 2012.