Square’s steady revenue growth and surging stock price has, until now, made it a bona fide business success for Jack Dorsey, much more so than the CEO’s other company, Twitter. But Square’s bizarre decision to buy a majority stake in music streaming service Tidal for nearly $300 million suggests Dorsey is losing focus.
Perhaps Dorsey got confused and thought the deal was being done through Twitter? That would be a better fit. For Square, this seems like one of those deals that CEOs do when they want to hang out with celebrities. Tidal is owned by a group of musical artists, most prominently the music mogul Jay-Z, who last summer went sailing with Dorsey and who will join the Square board. Jay-Z took control of the service six years ago, paying a reported $56 million to buy its then-owner, the Swedish company Aspiro.
