Payments company Square is reportedly in talks with Yik Yak’s biggest investor Sequoia Capital to acquire the anonymous messaging app maker.

While several suitors are interested in purchasing Yik Yak, few of the potential deals would provide sufficient return on investment for the messaging company’s backers, Fortune reported.

As a result, the company is more likely to seek a deal which would see its staff transferred in return for a stake in the buyer, the business publication stated.

Sequoia Capital holds the key to any deal because it is the largest investor in Yik Yak, which to date raised $73.5 million in funding, Fortune said. The venture capital company’s investment in 2014 saw the messaging company valued at $400 million, the publication added.

While it saw some success in its early years, this was accompanied by concerns  its anonymous nature could make it a tool for cyberbullying. Attempts to drop the anonymous element proved unpopular with users.

At the end of 2016, Yik Yak laid-off between 30 and 50 employees (some 60 per cent of its workforce) and planned to incubate new apps, including a secret group messaging app called Hive.

The company’s position as a local social network for colleges is cited as a potential limitation on its growth potential.

Anonymous social app Secret, which was surrounded by controversy and concerns about bullying and the spreading of false information, was shut down in April 2015.

Square, a US-headquartered mobile point of sale terminal maker, recently launched in the UK, its first market in Europe.