Payments company Stripe and private equity firm
Advent International have made a joint offer to acquire PayPal
Holdings Inc for $60.50 per share, in a deal that would
value the payments company at more than $53 billion, two people
familiar with the matter said.
The offer, submitted earlier this month, is backed by about
$50 billion in committed financing from banks, the people said,
and represents around a 28% premium to PayPal’s closing share
price on Tuesday.
The people declined to be named as the deal discussions are
confidential. Advent declined to comment, while PayPal and
Stripe did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for
comment.
The proposal follows an initial approach made in early
April, the sources said. Stripe and Advent have not received a
response from PayPal and are seeking to advance discussions in
the coming weeks, the sources added.
Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would jointly own
PayPal, with each holding an equal stake, rather than breaking
up the company, the people said. There is no certainty the
approach will result in a transaction, they added.
Founded in the late 1990s, PayPal was an early player in
digital payments, but has faced increasing competition as
consumers have embraced alternative payment methods and rivals
such as Apple Pay and Google Pay have gained market share.
It has spent the past several years grappling with slowing
growth and intensifying competition in digital payments, wiping
out much of the value it gained during the pandemic.
The company’s market capitalization peaked at about $360
billion in 2021 and fell to as low as roughly $36 billion this
year. It has lost more than 40% of its market value over the
past 12 months.
After taking over in March, PayPal CEO Enrique Lores started a
sweeping turnaround exercise to simplify the payments provider
and sharpen its focus on growth.
In April, the company split its operations into three units
covering checkout, consumer financial services Venmo, and
payments and crypto, while making a series of management
changes.