Feb. 12--Visa Inc. took a significant stake in mobile-payments company Square Inc. prior to its initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The global credit card and financial services firm acquired some 4.19 million Class B shares in 2011 that do not publicly trade. It has the right to convert 3.52 million of them to Class A shares, the filing by Visa said.
