Square Launches 'Terminal' For Card and Mobile Payments
*By Bridgette Webb*
Square wants to revamp those drab credit card readers.
The San Francisco-based company on Thursday debuted the Square Terminal, a new all-in-one hardware device that enables businesses to accept all physical debit and credit cards and mobile payments through Apple ($AAPL) Pay, Google ($GOOGL) Pay, Samsung Pay, and NFC.
"It's a great combination of our amazing payment service and combines it with hardware that's integrated all in one ー beautiful and exactly the technology all kinds of business need," Jesse Dorogusker, Square's hardware lead said in an interview on Cheddar.
"It's all set up to replace all terminals and legacy terminals out there."
The Terminal costs $399 and carries a 2.6 percent and 10 cent transaction fee for every payment. Square ($SQ) is offering a $300 credit as an incentive for businesses to switch over.
The device broadens the scope of company's suite of products, which includes the counter-top Square Register ($999) aimed at larger retailers, the small Bluetooth card reader ($49) for mom-and-pop shops, and a free magnetic stripe reader.
The launch also comes about a week after the company said long-time CFO Sarah Friar would step down to become the CEO of social network Nextdoor. Her departure shook investors in the company ー shares fell 20 percent in the two days after the news.
But Dorogusker isn't worried.
"Sarah is a tremendous leader, we are really excited for her," he said.
"She's had a lifelong dream of being a CEO, and I know she will be a great executive at the helm. We have a lot of confidence in our ambitions, momentum, and the performance of this team."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/square-launches-new-device-for-credit-cards-and-mobile-payments).
Coming off of a fourth-quarter delivering just over 300,000 cars, Tesla is expected to report tremendous earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Al Root, a senior writer for Barron’s, spoke with Cheddar’s Baker Machado about the anticipated earnings report and speculated about what Elon Musk will discuss during the call with investors, including a Cybertruck update, new factories, a possible new vehicle, and/or new larger form batteries. "There's a menu of things he could talk about, and any combination of those would be good," said Root.
Foodable Labs data shows restaurants that started offering vegan options saw a 13% increase in traffic. According to this 2018 study, 51% of U.S. restaurants now offer vegan options, and we can expect that number to keep rising. This week, one plant-based, fast-casual restaurant celebrates the grand opening of their first brick-and-mortar store in New York City: PLNT Burger. Ben Kaplan, CEO of PLNT Burger, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Chris Smyth, EY Americas Private Equity Leader, joins Cheddar News to discuss 2021's banner year of private equity market growth, and trends and predictions going into 2022.
James Whitley, Core Contributor at cypher, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses the underlying factors that support a bounce-back for Bitcoin despite the token's recent slump.
Commercial and residential buildings account for 13% of carbon emissions in the U.S., according to the EPA, and one company says it has a solution. Runwise says it has updated the boiler and heating systems of thousands of buildings, and that its technology not only lowers carbon output but also saves landlords money. Lee Hoffman, Co-Founder and COO of Runwise, joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
