Chanticleer

Goodbye Afterpay, hello Block: Where to for the ASX’s new giant

US payments giant Block (formerly Square) is making an unusually quiet entry to the ASX, given its $80 billion value. Its big slide since its Afterpay takeover raises questions about its outlook.

Updated Jan 20, 2022 – 12.17pm, first published at 10.41am

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It may have a market valuation of more than $80 billion, but there’s an unusually eerie sense of quiet around the arrival of US payments giant Block (formerly known as Square) on the ASX following its merger with Afterpay.

In fact, one of the few sounds investors might have been able to hear is giggling; a very amusing meme video doing the rounds of Twitter brutally lampoons the deal, the huge fall in Block’s share price since it was announced last August, and even (how could they?!) The Australian Financial Review’s positive commentary on the deal.

James Thomson is senior Chanticleer columnist based in Melbourne. He was the Companies editor and editor of BRW Magazine.