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Visa reveals its stake in rival Square (updated)

Last week Visa revealed its own plans for online payments.

Visa has purchased 10 percent of Square's trading shares according to documents seen by the WSJ. Square is best known for its smartphone-attached readers that make it easy for merchants (and even panhandlers) to accept credit cards. The company was started and is still headed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Though Square's Jack Dorsey revealed that Visa had taken a piece of it several years back, the credit card giant only recently revealed the amount of the stake. Visa recently launched Visa Developer, software that will help merchants accept Visa payments more easily.

Visa SVP Mark Jamison recently decried efforts by Google, Apple and other tech giants to enter the payment market. "No other company in this space has yet to deliver the customer density, global reach and scale that will be available through Visa's open platform," he affirmed.

Update: The article original stated that Visa purchased a 10 percent stake in Square, which is not accurate. Visa actually owns 10 percent of Square's class 'A' trading shares, which represents a much smaller stake, around 1 percent, of the company. In addition, it has owned the shares for several years, but only revealed the size of its stake recently. The article has been updated to reflect that information.