Jack Dorsey's Square acquires Jay-Z's Tidal for $297 mln

Jack Dorsey's Square acquires Jay-Z's Tidal for $297 mln

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's payments-processing company Square on Thursday agreed to buy a majority ownership stake in Tidal, a music streaming service owned by rapper Jay Z, for $297 million in cash and stock.

Colette Luke has more.

Square, the payments-processing company co-founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, on Thursday agreed to buy a majority ownership stake in Tidal, a music streaming service owned by rapper Jay Z, for $297 million dollars in cash and stock.

Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, would become a member of Square's board of directors.

Square did not disclose the percentage of the ownership stake.

Dorsey tweeted about the deal Thursday saying quote: "Why would a music streaming company and a financial services company join forces?!... It comes down to a simple idea: finding new ways for artists to support their work.

New ideas are found at the intersections, and we believe there’s a compelling one between music and the economy.

Making the economy work for artists is similar to what Square has done for sellers.” Jay-Z also tweeted about the pact saying quote: “Jack is one of the greatest minds of our times, and our many discussions about TIDAL’s endless possibilities have made me even more inspired about its future." Square said in a statement that Tidal will operate independently within Square and existing artist shareholders will be the remaining stakeholders.

Tidal - which Jay Z bought for roughly $56 million dollars in 2015 - calls itself an artist-owned service backed by Kanye West, Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj among others, and is available in more than 56 countries.