Stripe and Advent offer $53B to acquire PayPal in payments mega-deal

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have reportedly submitted a joint offer to acquire PayPal for more than $53 billion.

Summary

• Stripe and Advent reportedly offered $60.50 per PayPal share, valuing the payments company above $53 billion.
• The proposed acquisition has $50 billion in bank financing, but PayPal has not responded publicly.
• A deal would combine PayPal’s PYUSD ecosystem with Stripe’s rapidly expanding global stablecoin payment infrastructure network.

The proposed deal would combine two major payments businesses as stablecoins and digital settlement become a larger part of the global financial sector. Reuters reported that Stripe and Advent offered $60.50 for each PayPal share. The price represents a roughly 28% premium to PayPal’s Tuesday closing price. About $50 billion in bank financing has been committed to support the proposed transaction, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Stripe and Advent seek equal ownership of PayPal

Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would each hold an equal stake in PayPal rather than dividing the company into separate businesses. The offer was reportedly submitted earlier in July after an initial approach in April.

PayPal, Stripe and Advent declined to comment on the reported talks. Reuters said PayPal had not responded to the latest proposal when the report was published. The sources also warned that there is “no certainty” that discussions will result in a completed transaction.

The reported $53 billion valuation comes after a sharp decline in PayPal’s market value from its 2021 peak. The company has faced stronger competition across checkout, digital wallets and alternative payment methods. New CEO Enrique Lores began restructuring the business after taking over in March.

PayPal is reorganizing around payments and crypto

PayPal reorganized its operations in April into three main units covering checkout, Venmo consumer financial services, and payments and crypto. The company reported first-quarter revenue of $8.35 billion, up 7%, while payment volume increased 8% on a currency-neutral basis to about $464 billion.

Its crypto business includes PayPal USD, or PYUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos. PayPal says the token is backed by dollar deposits, U.S. Treasuries and similar cash equivalents and can be exchanged for dollars through its platform.

As previously reported, PYUSD recently expanded natively to Polygon through the network’s Open Money Stack. The integration gives businesses access to stablecoin payments, settlements, fiat conversion and compliance infrastructure through one system.

Stripe has built its own stablecoin infrastructure

A takeover would also bring PayPal’s crypto payment products into a company that has invested heavily in stablecoin infrastructure. Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin platform, in a deal valued at about $1.1 billion, expanding its ability to support digital dollar issuance and payments.

As reported by crypto.news, the Bridge transaction marked one of Stripe’s largest moves into crypto infrastructure. Stripe has since supported stablecoin payment projects across several major technology platforms and blockchain networks.

Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a February employee and shareholder tender offer. That valuation gives the privately held company a larger reported market value than PayPal under the current takeover proposal.

Potential deal arrives as payments companies seek scale

The reported bid comes during wider consolidation across global payments. Companies are seeking greater scale while expanding into cross-border transfers, business payments, artificial intelligence and blockchain settlement.

Stablecoins have become part of that shift. As previously reported, Stripe, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and other payment companies have expanded their use of blockchain-based dollars for settlement and money transfers.

A completed takeover could place PayPal’s consumer payments network, Venmo and PYUSD alongside Stripe’s merchant infrastructure and stablecoin technology. However, the proposal remains preliminary. PayPal has not publicly accepted the offer, and the parties have not announced a formal acquisition agreement.

The reported bidders are seeking to move discussions forward before the end of July, according to the original report. Any agreement would still face detailed negotiations and likely regulatory review before completion.