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Square considers going public next year, says report

The mobile payments company explores the possibility of a 2014 initial public offering, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Donna Tam Staff Writer / News
Donna Tam covers Amazon and other fun stuff for CNET News. She is a San Francisco native who enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail and reading her Kindle.
Donna Tam
Square CEO Jack Dorsey shows off a Square product.
Square CEO Jack Dorsey shows off a Square product. Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Mobile payments company Square may go public next year, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The company has been in discussions with banks, including Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, about holding a 2014 initial public offering, a "person familiar with the matter" told the Journal. But, nothing is set yet. The same source said the company has yet to hire any of the banks and the timing of a deal could change, according to the report.

Square declined to comment on the report.

If true, Square CEO and Co-founder Jack Dorsey will be tackling two initial public offerings back-to-back. This report comes right before Twitter, another company co-founded by Dorsey, is set to go public on Thursday. Dorsey has long danced around the topic of going public for both companies. In September, he told Bloomberg that an IPO is not a goal for Square.

Internal projections show the company's sales approaching $1 billion next year, other unnamed sources shared with the Journal, and Dorsey has a plan that would make Square profitable in 2015.

Square has been bolstering its management recently and even got David Viniar, a former Goldman Sachs CFO, to join its board last week.

Update, 3:12 p.m. PT: Adds that Square declined to comment.