The Payments Giant Nobody Saw Coming: Stripe and Advent Want All of PayPal

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The Payments Giant Nobody Saw Coming: Stripe and Advent Want All of PayPal

A joint takeover bid at $60.50 a share would hand PayPal’s two biggest units equal ownership, and traders are betting it goes through.

Stripe and private equity giant Advent International have quietly put in a joint offer to buy PayPal, according to people familiar with the matter. The number on the table: more than $53 billion. PayPal has yet to respond.

KEY DETAILS

The bid values PayPal at $60.50 per share – a 28% premium over Tuesday’s closing price. Banks have already lined up roughly $50 billion in financing to back it. The offer was submitted earlier this month, following an initial approach back in April that PayPal never answered. Under the plan, Stripe and Advent wouldn’t split PayPal apart. Instead, they’d own it together, each holding an equal stake. Both companies declined to comment, and the sources asked not to be named since talks remain private.

MARKET REACTION

PayPal shares jumped 15% in premarket trading on the news.

PayPal has been struggling for years, its market cap sliding from a 2021 peak of $360 billion to as low as $36 billion this year. New CEO Enrique Lores has been pushing a turnaround since March, splitting the company into three units – checkout, Venmo, and payments/crypto – while trimming costs with AI. Revenue is actually growing again, up 7% to $8.35 billion last quarter, beating estimates. But a buyout at this scale would still reshape the payments industry, adding to a wave of consolidation that’s already swept up Worldpay and Payoneer in the past year.

WHAT TO WATCH NEXT

Whether PayPal’s board engages with the offer and whether a rival bidder emerges before it does.

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Source: Reuters

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