Square融资几乎“烧尽” 或将押注新产品进行激进投资

    虽然互联网本身就是个瞬息万变的行业，但移动支付技术公司Square的命运大逆转也着实快得令人吃惊。几乎就在一瞬间，由Twitter共同创始人杰克•多尔西领导的Square公司就从春风得意陷入大难临头。据媒体报道，Square是一家增长得很快、但烧钱也很快的公司。现在，这家公司的资金消耗率很高，资产缩水，而且可选择的路也在变窄。

    但是通过对Square公司高管层、董事会成员以及消息人士的采访，以及通过《财富》获得的该公司的一系列内部邮件来看，Square的问题还要微妙得多。

    Square无疑是一家处在转型期的公司，它已经建立起了规模可观的支付业务，而且还在继续快速增长，现在它正试图利用这个跳板进军更有利可图的新领域。为此，这家公司还于本周推出了两款新产品。但是谁也难以给成功打保票。就在新产品发布前后，更引人注目的却是这家公司利润最高的产品之一、Square钱包的溃败。

    Square公司目前仍未转为盈利，不过它的亏损很大部分是大量投资新产品研发所造成的。光是去年一年，它就新招募了300名员工，目前的员工数量已经接近900人。

    此前的一些报道表示，Square核心支付业务的几乎每笔交易都在赔钱。但是，这家公司的内部电邮显示，这些交易的毛利润率（也就是在支付卡片处理机手续费、支付网络费用和其它中间费用之后的利润）是相对比较健康的34%。每处理一笔100美元的交易，它会收取大约3美元。这家公司把这3美元记为营收入，然后从这3美元中赚取大约1美元的毛利润。根据公司的内部邮件，它每年处理的交易达3000亿美元左右，这样它的年毛利润约为3亿美元。【这个数据没有包含Square处理的星巴克（Starbucks）的交易，具体见下文。】

    红杉资本（Sequoia Capital）合伙人、Square董事会成员罗洛夫•博萨指出：“我们通过交易获得的毛利已经足以抵补公司的非增长性支出。如果我们说：‘咱们不要再为了保持增长而花钱了’，那么我们可能明天就会转入盈利。”

    不过博萨拒绝对任何特定的财务数据发表评论。Square公司发言人亚伦•扎莫斯特同样对特定的财务数据不予置评。

    据《财富》获得的有关文件显示，根据Square的内部预测，这家公司预计将在一年以后实现盈利。（另外，这家公司还有一个替代方案，打算在新产品上更加激进地进行投资。如果是这样的话，那么Square扭亏为盈的时间可能会被推迟几个月，但届时它会以更快的速度增长。）虽然这家公司也预计它在此期间的现金储备会有所下降，但是从其内部预测来看，它会在现金流耗尽前实现扭亏为盈。另外Square公司最近获得了2.25亿美元的信用额度，高于前期一些的报道中所说的数额，这笔钱也将给Square带来额外的喘息空间。有熟悉这家公司财务状况的人士表示，Square的内部预测还算是相对保守的，而且它也没有算上新产品（虽然还未经证实）所带来的收益。如果算上新产品的推动作用，它无疑会帮助Square更快实现盈利。

    根据Square的内部邮件，虽然2013年该公司的账面亏损达近1亿美元，但是它的税息折旧及摊销前利润（这是一个常用的会计指标）是6700万美元。同时，亏损额（没有计算它处理的星巴克的交易）要比这家公司自己预测的低了1200万美元，同时也比上年度有所减少。

    博萨虽然对这些内部预测不予置评，但他表示Square的业务是“非常有可预见性”，也就是说收益的增长基本与之前的预期一致。

    最近《华尔街日报》（the Wall Street Journal ）的一篇文章称，Square存在烧光现金的风险，结果让Square的高管们很受伤。这篇报道还称，Square正打算把自己卖给某个财大气粗的科技巨头，最有可能吃下Square的就是谷歌（Google）。不过Square公司激烈地否认了公司在与任何人进行收购谈判。

    熟知此事内情的人士表示，Square和谷歌之前的确有过接洽，但双方的会谈主要围绕的是谷歌风投（Google Ventures）有可能对Square的投资。不过Square和谷歌都拒绝评论此事。

    我们现在还不清楚为什么Square在已经募集了3.67亿资金的情况下还在积极地追逐投资。根据这家公司的内部邮件，截至2013年年底，这家公司账上大约还有1.55亿美元资金。以往Square在融资上有点机会主义倾向，只要有机会以优惠条件融资就绝不放过机会。Square高管层似乎特别自信投资者会喜欢买它的股票。据内部邮件称，最近这家公司在二次发行时允许员工将数量有限的股票卖给外部人。结果这些股份非常抢手，供需缺口达到4000万美元。不过，这家公司本身选择不卖出任何自己持有的股权，哪怕这样可以缩小亏损额，同时还能在这个过程中获得额外资金。

    负责领导Square向新产品类别转型的是39岁的产品工程奇才戈库尔•拉甲兰。他一年前加盟Square，而在那之前，他曾经在谷歌和Facebook领导了一些最重要的广告技术的开发。

    Even in an industry where things happen at Internet speed, the purported reversal of fortune at Square was remarkably fast. In seemingly no time, the mobile payments startup led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey went from darling to impending disaster. Square is a fast-growing but money-losing enterprise, reports proclaimed, with a high burn rate, shrinking balance sheet, and narrowing set of options.

    But several interviews with Square executives, board members, and people close to the company -- as well as a series of internal company e-mails obtained by Fortune -- suggest a far more subtle narrative.

    Square is certainly a company in transition. It has built a sizable and fast-growing payments business, which it is now trying to use as a springboard to expand into new and potentially more profitable areas. This week, the company introduced two new products intended to do just that. Success is hardly guaranteed, and the release comes in the wake of the failure of one of the company's high-profile products -- Square Wallet.

    The company has yet to turn a profit, but its losses are largely the result of the heavy investment it is making in new products. In the last year alone, Square added 300 employees. Its current headcount is nearing 900.

    Some earlier reports suggest Square loses money on every transaction in its core payments business. But internal e-mails show that gross margins on transactions -- the amount of profit left after paying card processors, payment networks and other intermediaries -- are a relatively healthy 34%. On a $100 transaction, the company takes a cut of about $3, which it records as revenue and from which it earns about $1 in gross profit. According to the internal e-mails, company is processing about $30 billion in transactions annually, which would put its gross profit at an annual rate of about $300 million. (These figures exclude the transactions Square handles on behalf of Starbucks; more on that below.)

    "The gross profits we earn on transactions already pay for the non-growth expenses of the company," said Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Square. "We could be profitable tomorrow morning if we said, 'Lets not spend money to keep growing.' "

    Botha declined to comment on any specific financial figures. Aaron Zamost, a company spokesman, also declined to comment on specific financial information.

    Internal projections show that the company expects to start turning a profit about a year from now, according to the documents reviewed by Fortune. (An alternate plan that contemplates more aggressive investments in new products shows profitability would be delayed by a couple of months but would increase at a faster rate afterwards.) Though the company expects its cash reserves to decline between now and then, its projections show that a turnaround will happen before Square would run out of cash. Further, the company recently secured a $225 million line of credit -- a total higher than what has been previously reported -- that will give it additional breathing room. People familiar with the company's finances say that its projections are relatively conservative, and do not include revenue from Square's new (and as yet unproven) products, which could conceivably help the company reach profitability sooner.

    Though the company recorded am overall loss of roughly $100 million in 2013, its EBITDA loss, a commonly used accounting measure, was $67 million, according to the internal e-mails. The loss, which excludes Starbucks transactions, was $12 million lower than the company had projected and slightly smaller than the year before, the e-mails show.

    Botha declined to comment on any of the internal forecasts, but said that Square's business has been "incredibly predictable," meaning that revenue has grown in line with previous predictions.

    Square executives were stung by a recent story in the Wall Street Journal that suggested the company was at risk of running out of cash. The story also said that Square had discussed selling itself to deep-pocketed giants, most notably Google (GOOG). Square vehemently denied that it held acquisition talks with anyone.

    People familiar with the matter say that Square and Google had talks, but that they were centered around a possible investment in Square by Google Ventures, the company's venture capital arm. Square and Google Ventures declined to comment.

    It is not clear whether Square -- which has already raised a total of $367 million from investors -- is actively trying to raise additional funds. The company had about $155 million left on its balance sheet at the end of 2013, according to the internal emails. In the past, the company has been opportunistic about financing, raising money when it was possible to do so on favorable terms. Square executives seem to be confident that investors still find its shares attractive. When the company recently allowed employees to sell a limited number of their shares in a secondary offering, demand for the shares exceeded supply by about $40 million, according to internal e-mails. The company chose not to sell any of its own shares, even though it could have done so to close the gap and to raise additional funds in the process.

    The man charged with leading Square's transition into new product categories is GokulRajaram, a 39-year-old product engineering whiz who led the development of some of the most important ad technologies at Google and Facebook (FB) before joining Square nearly a year ago.