Square to acquire Afterpay, Australian buy now, pay later platform for $29 billion

Square — the financial payments company known for its popular Cash App — 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.