PayPal shares jumped after a report said that payments company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have offered to buy the company. Stripe and Advent have jointly offered to pay $60.50 per PayPal share. The offer values PayPal at more than $53 billion.
The offer price is around 28% higher than PayPal’s closing share price of $47.37 on Tuesday. The takeover offer was submitted earlier this month. The bid is backed by about $50 billion in financing already promised by banks, as reported by Reuters, citing a person familiar with the matter. The information came from two people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
PayPal takeover offer
PayPal, Stripe and Advent International have not commented on the report. The latest offer came after Stripe and Advent first approached PayPal in early April. PayPal has not yet responded to the takeover proposal. Stripe and Advent are hoping to move the discussions forward in the coming weeks. Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would each own 50% of PayPal.
The buyers do not plan to split up PayPal. They want to keep the company together. There is still no guarantee that the takeover deal will happen. PayPal shares were up about 16.2% in premarket trading. PayPal was one of the first major companies in digital payments after it was founded in the late 1990s, according to Reuters.
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Why PayPal became a target
Over the years, PayPal has faced stronger competition from services like Apple Pay and Google Pay. The company has also struggled with slower business growth after the pandemic. PayPal’s market value reached around $360 billion in 2021. Its market value later dropped to around $36 billion this year. The company has lost more than 40% of its market value over the past 12 months, according to Reuters.
Global payments deals
The possible PayPal deal comes as merger and acquisition activity is increasing across the global payments industry. Many payment companies are buying rivals to become larger and enter faster-growing businesses like cross-border payments and business-to-business payments.
Stripe and PayPal future
Stripe is one of the world’s most valuable private fintech companies. Stripe was valued at about $159 billion in a share sale earlier this year, up more than 70% from the previous year. Reuters also reported that Stripe bought stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion in 2025. Bridge allows businesses to create their own dollar-backed digital tokens instead of launching a consumer cryptocurrency.
PayPal already has its own stablecoin called PYUSD, which has a market value of nearly $2.9 billion. Reuters reported that global merger activity reached a record $2.8 trillion in the first half of 2026 and could reach $4 trillion by the end of the year. For now, PayPal’s board has not responded to the offer, and it remains unclear whether the company will enter formal takeover talks.
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