Amazon’s capitulation to Square now appears final.
Re/code is reporting that Amazon is giving Square credit-card readers to business owners who once used the online store’s competing product, called Local Register.
Amazon began offering the Local Register card-swiping device less than two years ago, and seemed determined to compete with Square, co-founded by Jack Dorsey, one of Twitter’s co-founders. Three months ago Amazon said it was scrapping the payment-processing effort.
Square is a financial services company that offers alternative payment methods, including its own credit-card reader. So was Square a fierce competitor or did Amazon discover that there’s little profit in this area?
Founded in 2009, Square made a public offering of its shares in November. After trading for as high as $13, the stock was trading Friday at $8.90 per share.
