Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey’s digital payments platform, Square, announced on Monday that it entered a $39 billion (US$29 bn) agreement to acquire one of Australia’s leading buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) companies, Afterpay. “Square and Afterpay have a shared purpose,” Square CEO Jack Dorsey said in a joint statement. “We built our business to make the financial system more fair, accessible, and inclusive, and Afterpay has built a trusted brand aligned with those principles.” The transaction is based on the closing price of Square common stock on July 30, 2021. This comes to a transaction price of approximately $126.21 (US$92.85) per Afterpay share, or a premium of over 30 percent to Afterpay’s closing price on Friday ($96.66). It is expected to conclude in the first quarter of 2022, and Square expects Afterpay shareholders to own around 18.5 percent of the combined company. “Buy now, pay later has been a powerful growth tool …