A consortium led by payment infrastructure titan Stripe and private equity firm Advent International has abandoned its pursuit of the PayPal, according to reports from Bloomberg. News of the deal collapsing sent PayPal shares sliding by up to 16% in trading.
The potential takeover, which valued PayPal at upwards of $53 billion, represented a rare role reversal in Silicon Valley. It would have seen a private venture-backed fintech firm effectively acquire an S&P 500 market giant.
Rumours of Stripe eyeing parts of PayPal first surfaced earlier in the year following a prolonged slump in PayPal’s market valuation. By mid-summer, Stripe and Advent had formalised a joint offer of $60.50 per share, valuing PayPal at more than $53 billion.
However, PayPal’s board reportedly pushed back, viewing the initial bid as far too low. During the same period, PayPal’s business began showing signs of a financial turnaround. Better-than-expected Q2 earnings and strategic restructuring under new CEO Enrique Lores helped push PayPal’s stock value up by over 40%, narrowing the gap between its public market value and the consortium’s offer price.
With PayPal’s board holding out for a significantly higher valuation and negotiations stalling, the consortium elected to walk away rather than overpay.
PayPal has faced a bumpy road over the past few years, struggling to keep pace as competitors like Apple Pay and Google Pay steadily chip away at its dominant checkout market share. At its peak in 2021, PayPal commanded a staggering market capitalization of roughly $360 billion, before a post-pandemic slowdown erased much of those gains.
Representatives for Stripe, Advent, and PayPal all declined to comment on the reported breakup.
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