Stripe, the payments-technology company, and the private-equity firm Advent International have jointly offered to buy PayPal for more than $53 billion, according to a report that sent PayPal's shares climbing.
The two would pay $60.50 a share, a premium of roughly 28% to PayPal's previous close, in an offer first reported by Reuters citing sources. PayPal's stock jumped around 15% after the news. The proposal is said to be backed by about $50 billion in committed bank financing, with Stripe and Advent taking equal stakes in the company.
An offer, not a deal
Crucially, this is a reported approach that PayPal has not accepted. The company has not publicly responded, and Stripe, Advent and PayPal all declined to comment. PayPal's board is expected to meet around July 20 to consider the offer, and some reports suggest PayPal has been reluctant to engage and could push for better terms. Committed financing, too, typically comes with conditions and is no guarantee a transaction will close.
Two payments giants
A tie-up would bring together two of the biggest names in digital payments. Stripe built its business processing payments for online merchants and has become one of the world's most valuable private companies, valued at around $159 billion after a share sale earlier this year. PayPal, older and publicly listed, owns a widely used consumer wallet along with Venmo and serves hundreds of millions of account holders.
Combining them would create a payments group straddling both the merchant and consumer sides of the market, an unusually broad reach that would also invite close attention from competition regulators.
What comes next
The approach appears to follow an earlier, private overture made in the spring, suggesting weeks of behind-the-scenes discussion before the bid surfaced. Whether it leads anywhere now depends on PayPal's board, the price the bidders are willing to pay, and the regulatory reception a deal of this size would face.
For investors, the immediate takeaway was the premium on offer and the signal that Stripe is prepared to make a very large, public move to expand. For the wider industry, the prospect of two of its dominant players joining forces is a reminder of how quickly the business of moving money is consolidating, even as the outcome here remains far from certain.
