Block co-founder Jack Dorsey’s net worth has tumbled by more than half a billion dollars after short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the payments app of misleading investors with “inflated metrics.”
Dorsey, who also founded Twitter, saw his net worth tumble by $526mln or 11% to $4.4bln, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
The decline in Block’s share price hit Dorsey’s net worth hard because much of his wealth comes from his $3bln stake in the payments company, per Bloomberg.
Dorsey also still holds a $388mln stake in Twitter, which Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk purchased and took private in October 2022.
Shares of Square’s parent company Block fell 14.8% on Thursday following the release of Hindenburg’s report and had fallen another 2.8% to US$60.16 in pre-market trading on Friday.
The company said in a statement that it intends to work with the Securities and Exchange Commission to explore legal action against the short seller for the “factually inaccurate and misleading report.”
"We have reviewed the full report in the context of our own data and believe it's designed to deceive and confuse investors," Block said.
“We are a highly regulated public company with regular disclosures, and are confident in our products, reporting, compliance programs, and controls."
Contact the author at emily.jarvie@proactiveinvestors.com
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