For Some Reason, Square’s Hiring Page Listed Chirply And SeatMe As ‘Potential Acquisitions’

So, this is weird. Earlier today, if you visited Square’s hiring page on Jobvite, there were two unusual job listings, one for “Chirply — Potential Acquisition” and another for “SeatMe — Potential Acquisition.”

If those were accurate statements, well, that’s a pretty strange way to announce a pair of pending deals. But before you start sending out those congratulatory tweets and emails, I should note that a source with knowledge of the matter told me that Square is not pursuing an acquisition of those companies at this time. (A company spokesperson declined to comment.)

So how did their names end up as “potential acquisitions” on a Jobvite page? Well, probably the same way they would have shown up if there really were talks — someone, somewhere in the company, screwed up. Regardless of the reason, that screwup has been corrected — after I reached out to Square, the listings disappeared. (You can see them in the screenshot below.)

square jobvite

As for what those startups do, Chirply is a crowdsourced card design site (at least, that’s what it did when I wrote about it two years agothe current website is one of those cryptic beta pages.) And SeatMe is a reservation startup trying to take on OpenTable. (I emailed both companies for comment and will update if I hear back.)

It doesn’t seem totally out there to believe Square might be vaguely interested in these companies, particularly as talent acquisitions. But that’s a long way from having serious talks.

Thanks to Amin Issa for the tip.