Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Jack Dorsey's Square is spending $29 billion on an Australian buy now, pay later firm — a massive purchase that will help his company build out its global payments empire.
Square — the financial payments company known for its popular Cash App — said it plans to merge Afterpay with its existing apps. That will give "even the smallest of merchants" the ability offer buy now, pay later services at checkout, among other offerings.
The acquisition is Square's largest ever.
Afterpay was founded in 2015 and launched in America in 2018. It's best known for its buy now, pay later offerings — a service that allows customers to divide retail and online payments into installments.
Such offerings have grown in popularity as a way to reach younger consumers and keep up with the rapid shift to online shopping in the pandemic. Payment analysts have pointed to the trend as particularly popular among Millennials and Generation Z, who are wary of taking on credit card debt.
Afterpay, meanwhile, is among the most prominent companies in the space. Square says 100,000 merchants globally use the platform, and that it has more than 16 million customers.
Square said it expects the all-stock deal to close in the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition is not only Square's largest ever, but it's also the largest acquisition of an Australian company ever — according to data from Refinitiv.
Dorsey, who serves as Square's CEO in addition to Twitter's, said Square and Afterpay have a "shared purpose."
"We built our business to make the financial system more fair, accessible, and inclusive, and Afterpay has built a trusted brand aligned with those principles," he said in a statement. "Together, we can better connect our Cash App and Seller ecosystems to deliver even more compelling products and services for merchants and consumers, putting the power back in their hands."
Afterpay co-CEOs Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar said the move "marks an important recognition of the Australian technology sector as homegrown innovation continues to be shared more broadly throughout the world."
"By combining with Square, we will further accelerate our growth in the U.S. and globally, offer access to a new category of in-person merchants, and provide a broader platform of new and valuable capabilities and services to our merchants and consumers," they said in a statement.
Square has been in acquisition mode this year. Back in March it agreed to acquire a majority stake in Jay-Z's streaming music service Tidal for $297 million. And in July it acquired frontline employee platform Crew, though details of the purchase were not available.
-- Nathaniel Meyersohn and Diksha Madhok contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.