Stripe, Advent offer $53bn to acquire PayPal

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have jointly offered to acquire PayPal Holdings Inc. in a deal valued at more than $53 billion.

The offer, submitted earlier this month, values PayPal at $60.50 per share, representing a premium of about 28 per cent over the company’s closing share price on Tuesday.

The bid is reportedly backed by approximately $50 billion in committed financing from banks.

Sources told Reuters that Stripe and Advent first approached PayPal in early April and are seeking to move negotiations forward in the coming weeks.

However, PayPal has yet to respond to the proposal, and there is no certainty that the talks will result in a deal.

Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would each own an equal stake in PayPal, with no plans to break up the company.

PayPal, Stripe, and Advent declined to comment on the reported offer.

Nigeria’s inflation rate drops to 15.91% in June

If completed, the combination of Stripe and PayPal – two of the world’s leading online payment platforms – would create one of the largest digital payments companies globally, processing an estimated $3.7 trillion in annual payment volume.

Following reports of the takeover bid, PayPal shares surged nearly 17 per cent.

Founded in the late 1990s, PayPal helped pioneer digital payments but has faced mounting competition from rivals such as Apple Pay and Google Pay as consumers increasingly embrace alternative payment methods.

The company has also struggled with slowing growth and intensifying competition, erasing much of the value it gained during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PayPal’s market value, which peaked at about $360 billion in 2021, fell to around $36 billion earlier this year and has declined by more than 40 per cent over the past 12 months.