Apple vs Block: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Apple and Block side by side

1. 1976Apple

   Apple is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, turning an early personal-computer board into a company with a product and a market.

   Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple in 1976, when personal computing was still a hobbyist market.

2. 1977Apple

   The Apple II launches and gives the young company an expandable personal computer for schools, homes, and small businesses.

   The Apple II turned a garage project into a business. Color graphics, expansion slots and a consumer-friendly design carried it into schools, homes and small offices, giving Apple a revenue base years before the Macintosh.

3. 1980Apple

   Apple completes its initial public offering in December 1980, raising capital and turning personal computing into a public-market story.

   The December 1980 IPO gave Apple public-market capital and made personal computing look like a serious commercial category. It also raised the pressure to professionalize management, distribution and product planning as the company outgrew its founding team.

4. 1984Apple

   The Macintosh introduces a graphical interface and mouse-driven computing to a broad audience at a $2,495 launch price.

   The Macintosh brought a graphical interface and a mouse to a mass-market computer and defined Apple's design identity.

5. 1997Apple

   Apple completes the NeXT acquisition, bringing Steve Jobs back and supplying the operating-system foundation for the years that followed.

   Apple's NeXT acquisition brought Steve Jobs back when the company was financially weak and unfocused.

6. 2001Apple

   Apple introduces the iPod on October 23, 2001, a 5GB music player priced at $399 that held about 1,000 songs.

   The iPod put a hard-drive music library in a pocket at $399 and went on sale on November 10, 2001.

7. 2007Apple

   The iPhone is introduced as a phone, widescreen iPod, and internet communicator, moving Apple into the center of mobile computing.

   The iPhone moved Apple into mobile computing and shifted the company's center of gravity away from the Mac. It also created the hardware base that later supported services, accessories and developer economics.

8. 2008Apple

   The App Store opens with 500 apps, creating a controlled software marketplace that becomes a major Services pillar.

   The App Store launched with 500 apps and gave iPhone owners a single, controlled way to install third-party software.

9. 2009Block

   Square founded in St. Louis

   Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey start Square in February 2009 after McKelvey loses a $2,000 glass sale because he cannot take an American Express card. With engineer Tristan O'Tierney they build a reader that plugs into a phone's headphone jack.

10. 2010Block

    Square reader and app go public

    Square releases its free card reader and app, letting individuals and small sellers take card payments on a smartphone at one published rate instead of signing a bank merchant contract.

11. 2011Apple

    Tim Cook becomes chief executive on August 24, 2011, after Steve Jobs resigns and the board names Cook to succeed him.

    Apple's board named Tim Cook chief executive on August 24, 2011, when Steve Jobs resigned and recommended the succession plan be carried out.

12. 2011Block

    Visa invests in Square

    Visa makes a strategic investment in Square in April 2011, a sign the card networks saw the startup as widening card acceptance rather than threatening it.

13. 2012Block

    Starbucks deal

    Starbucks invests $25 million and Square starts processing card payments at about 7,000 U.S. Starbucks stores, with Dorsey joining the Starbucks board.

14. 2013Block

    Square Cash launches

    Square launches Square Cash in October 2013, letting people send money to each other by email. It later becomes Cash App.

15. 2014Apple

    Apple agrees to acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $3 billion, its largest deal.

    Apple agreed to buy Beats Music and Beats Electronics for a total of $3 billion, about $2.6 billion in purchase price plus roughly $400 million vesting over time, and brought in founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

16. 2014Block

    Square Capital and Caviar

    Square starts lending to its own sellers through Square Capital in May 2014, with repayments taken as a share of daily card sales, and buys food delivery service Caviar.

17. 2015Block

    IPO on the New York Stock Exchange

    Square lists on the NYSE as SQ on November 19, 2015 at $9 a share, a valuation of about $2.9 billion, raising about $243 million.

18. 2018Block

    Cash App adds bitcoin; Square buys Weebly

    Cash App, which added the Cash Card debit card in 2017, lets users buy bitcoin from 2018, and Square buys website builder Weebly for $365 million. Commission-free stock investing follows in 2019.

19. 2020Apple

    Apple announces the Mac transition to Apple silicon, deepening control over performance, power efficiency, and software optimization.

    Apple began moving Mac computers off Intel processors and onto its own M-series chips in 2020.

20. 2020Block

    Bitcoin treasury, Verse and Credit Karma Tax

    The FDIC approves deposit insurance for Square Financial Services in March 2020. Square buys Spanish payments app Verse in June, puts $50 million into 4,709 bitcoin in October, and agrees in November to buy Credit Karma Tax for $50 million.

21. 2021Block

    TIDAL purchase and Square's own bank opens

    Square Financial Services opens on March 1, 2021, and Square agrees the same month to buy a majority of the TIDAL music service for $297 million in cash and stock, with Jay-Z joining its board.

22. 2021Block

    Afterpay deal announced

    Square agrees in August 2021 to buy Afterpay, the Australian buy now, pay later company, in an all-stock deal valued at about $29 billion.

23. 2021Block

    Square becomes Block

    On December 10, 2021, Square, Inc. renames itself Block, Inc., shortly after Dorsey steps down as Twitter's chief executive. Square remains the name of the seller business.

24. 2022Block

    Afterpay acquisition closes

    Block completes the Afterpay purchase on January 31, 2022. Because it paid in its own shares, which had roughly halved since the announcement, the deal was worth much less at closing than the headline $29 billion.

25. 2023Block

    Hindenburg report, Square leadership change and Bitkey

    Short seller Hindenburg Research accuses Cash App in March 2023 of inflated user metrics and weak compliance, which Block rejects.

26. 2024Apple

    Vision Pro launches at $3,499 and gives Apple a shipping platform for spatial interfaces, sensors, and custom silicon.

    Vision Pro gave Apple a live platform for spatial interfaces, eye and hand input, high-resolution displays and custom chips.

27. 2024Block

    Proto mining chip and portfolio cuts

    Block says in April 2024 it has designed a 3-nanometer bitcoin mining chip, agrees in July to supply Core Scientific, and in November winds down its TBD crypto unit and scales back TIDAL.

28. 2025Block

    Cash App settlements and the XYZ ticker

    In January 2025 the CFPB orders Block to pay up to $120 million in Cash App redress plus a $55 million penalty, state regulators impose an $80 million anti-money-laundering penalty, and the ticker changes from SQ to XYZ.

29. 2025Block

    Block joins the S&P 500

    Block enters the S&P 500 on July 23, 2025, replacing Hess, and at its November investor day sets 2028 targets of about $15.8 billion of gross profit and $4.6 billion of adjusted operating income.

30. 2026Apple

    John Ternus becomes chief executive on September 1, 2026, and Tim Cook becomes executive chairman.

    John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, became chief executive on September 1, 2026, and Tim Cook became executive chairman after 15 years as CEO.

31. 2026Block

    Workforce cut to under 6,000

    On February 26, 2026, Dorsey announces Block will shrink from more than 10,000 employees to just under 6,000, citing AI, and the shares jump about 24%.

Acquisitions

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