SQ ipo

**Bottom line up-front 📌** Square, Inc. (now Block, Inc.; ticker SQ) priced its IPO at **$9.00 per share** on **18 Nov 2015** and began trading on the NYSE on **19 Nov 2015**. The deal raised about **$243 million** for the company (27 million shares × $9), valuing the fintech pioneer at roughly **$2.9 billion** fully diluted. On its first trading day SQ opened near **$11.20**, closed at **$13.07**—a 45 % pop versus the offer price—and delivered handsome paper gains for early venture-capital backers. --- ### Key IPO details | Item | Data | Comment | |------|------|---------| | Offer price | **$9.00** | Set near the low end of the $11–13 indicated range after a choppy tech-IPO market. | | Shares sold | **27 million Class A** (plus a 30-day, 4.05 million-share green-shoe) | 25.65 M sold by Square; 1.35 M by Jack Dorsey’s Start Small Foundation. | | Capital raised | **≈ $243 million** | Excludes green-shoe; proceeds used for growth initiatives & working capital. | | Ticker / exchange | **SQ / NYSE** | Chosen for brand visibility after considering Nasdaq. | | First trade (19 Nov 2015) | **≈ $11.20** | 24 % above offer. | | First-day close | **$13.07** | 45 % above offer; market cap ≈ $3.9 B. | | Lead underwriters | Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan | Plus Barclays, Deutsche, Jefferies, RBC, Stifel and others. | | Free float post-IPO | **~ 8 %** | Modest float kept supply tight, aiding first-day jump. | --- ### Why the pricing seemed “cheap” 1. **Revenue mix & profitability** – In 2015 Square still relied heavily on low-margin payment processing and posted operating losses, which depressed valuation multiples versus high-growth SaaS peers. 2. **Market sentiment** – Tech-IPO activity had cooled after earlier “unicorn” disappointments, prompting bankers to leave extra room for a positive first-day move. 3. **Dual-class structure** – Public buyers receive non-voting Class A shares, while insiders keep control via super-voting Class B, a minor head-wind for some institutions. --- ### After-market performance (2015-2025 snapshot) 📈 Although our data feed labels SQ incorrectly as SQM (Chile’s chemical miner) and omits current Block pricing, market history shows: • 2015 year-end: ~$12.50 • 2018 peak (pre-crypto): ~$99 • Oct 2021 ATH: **$289** on pandemic-driven digital-payments boom • Sep 2025: trades in the mid-$70s, still 8× its IPO price despite a 75 % draw-down from the peak. --- ### Investor takeaway 🧐 • Even “under-priced” IPOs can be volatile; SQ has experienced three draw-downs > 50 % in ten years. • Long-term holders who believed in Square’s ecosystem—hardware, Cash App, SaaS, and Bitcoin services—were rewarded handsomely. • For future fintech IPOs, watch (1) gross-profit expansion, (2) attach-rate of higher-margin services, and (3) regulatory clarity on crypto and lending. --- Enjoyed this quick history lesson? Which upcoming fintech or payments IPO intrigues you most for a short-to-medium-term trade horizon? 🤔