Stripe and Advent International have made a joint bid to acquire PayPal in a deal that would value the company at more than $53 billion. The proposal offers US$60.50 per share in cash, a 28% premium over Tuesday’s closing price, and includes nearly US$50 billion in committed bank financing. PayPal shares jumped more than 14% following the news. PayPal’s board would meet as early as July 20 to discuss the offer.
Stripe, the digital payments platform founded in 2010 by Irish brothers Patrick Collison and John Collison and valued at around US$159 billion, would have been evaluating the purchase of PayPal since February.
Advent International, a private equity firm with a global presence, would be a co-owner with equal shares under the proposed scheme. Block would also participate in the operation, with a joint contribution of US$17 billion in equity between the three companies.
PayPal in search of a direction
The offer comes at a complex time for PayPal, founded in 1998 by Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek under the name Confinity, and which in 2000 merged with Elon Musk’s
To address this situation, the board had already replaced its CEO Alex Chriss and appointed Enrique Lores, from HP, as the new president and CEO. Citi analysts noted that PayPal is investing heavily to revive its growth, but that investors remain skeptical after several failed attempts to reverse the company’s slowdown.
An operation that will redefine the global payment map
If the acquisition goes through, it would represent one of the largest transactions in the history of the global fintech sector and would solidify Stripe as the dominant player in the global digital payments infrastructure. For Latin America, where both PayPal and Stripe have an active presence and millions of integrated users and merchants, the movement could redefine the conditions of competition in cross-border payments, e-commerce and transaction processing in the region.
PayPal, Stripe and Advent International declined to comment on the offer, which has yet to receive a formal response from the target company.
