Apple reportedly offered to acquire Square for $3 billion but was declined

Earlier this year there were rumors that Apple and Google were thinking about acquiring Square, a payments company who had recently managed to raise another $100 million in funding. Given that we’re several months down the road from the original report and with Apple debuting their own Apple Pay service, what has become of the acquisition? Well according to a report from TechCrunch, it seems that negotiations between Apple and Square have fallen through as the latter company had declined Apple’s offer of “around $3 billion” to acquire the company. In fact it seems that the price might have been the reason why Square decided to walk away.

According to a filing obtained by VCExperts, Square has raised another $100 million in capital. The company authorized 6.4 million Series E shares, according to the document, at a per-share price of $15.46. Square is incredibly well capitalized. The company has raised hundreds of millions of dollars, has a nine-figure credit line and, now, a fresh $100 million traunch to use. The company lost around $100 million in 2013, and it isn’t clear how much cash the firm had on hand before the new capital injection. Square was reported to have $155 million in cash at the end of 2013, a figure that was recorded, of course, before its debt event that took place earlier this year. Square declined to comment on how it intended to use its new funds, specifically whether the monies were earmarked for acquisitions, or operational expenses. The new share price values Square at $6 billion, up from its recent $5 billion valuation that was set during a secondary offering of its shares earlier this year. As TechCrunch reported at that time, Square’s valuation has grown as its payment volume has increased. As time has passed, Square’s valuation has fallen behind its payment processing rate: In June of 2011, Square was processing payments at a rate of around $1.46 billion per annum. Its valuation was $1.6 billion. Recently, Square was expected to process $30 billion in calendar 2014 while being valued at $5 billion.