https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/business/media/tidal-square-jay-z-dorsey.html

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Media|Square acquires majority of Tidal, Jay-Z's streaming service,
in $297 million deal.
  

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Stocks Tumble for Third Day as Powell Urges Patience: Live Updates

Square acquires majority of Tidal, Jay-Z's streaming service, in $297
million deal.

[author-kat]
March 4, 2021, 8:00 a.m. ET
March 4, 2021, 8:00 a.m. ET

By Katherine Rosman

What did Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey talk about when they went yachting
around the Hamptons together last summer? Perhaps only Beyonce knows.

Maybe now we do, too. Square, the mobile payments company led by Mr.
Dorsey, announced on Thursday its plan to acquire a "significant
majority" of Tidal, the streaming music service owned by Jay-Z and
other artists -- including Beyonce, Jay-Z's wife, and Rihanna, who is
a client of Jay-Z's entertainment management company, Roc Nation.

Square will pay $297 million in stock and cash for the stake in
Tidal. Jay-Z will join Square's board.

Image
Jay-Z in 2015.Credit...Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
Image
Jack Dorsey in 2018.Credit...Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

The announcement comes less than two weeks after Jay-Z announced that
he would sell 50 percent of his champagne company, Armand de Brignac
-- better known as Ace of Spades -- to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
amid a downturn in the entertainment industry caused by the pandemic
that has affected some of Jay-Z's holdings.

"I think Roc Nation will be fine," Jay-Z said in an interview last
month about the sale of Armand de Brignac. "Like all entertainment
companies, it will eventually recover. You just have to be smart and
prudent at a time like this."

Also last month, Mr. Dorsey, who is also the chief executive of
Twitter, announced that he and Jay-Z had endowed a Bitcoin trust to
support development in India and Africa.

Tidal, which Jay-Z bought in partnership with other artists in 2015
for $56 million, provides members access to music, music videos and
exclusive content from artists, but the streaming music industry has
been dominated by competitors like Spotify, Apple and Amazon.

In 2017, Jay-Z sold 33 percent of the company to Sprint for an
undisclosed amount. (After a merger, Sprint is now a part of
T-Mobile.) Earlier this week, Jay-Z bought back the shares from
T-Mobile, and most will be sold to Square as part of the deal.

Mr. Dorsey and Jay-Z began to discuss the acquisition "a few months
ago," said Jesse Dorogusker, a Square executive who will lead Tidal
on an interim basis.

"It started as a conversation between the two of them," he said.
"They found that sense of common purpose."

Mr. Dorogusker said Square, which was founded in 2009, will offer
financial tools to help Tidal's artists collect revenue and manage
their finances. "There are other tools they need to be successful and
that we're going to build for them," he said.

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