Payments giant Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have jointly proposed acquiring PayPal Holdings for $60.50 per share, a deal valued at more than $53 billion, Reuters reported. The offer, submitted earlier this month, carries roughly $50 billion in committed bank financing and represents a 28% premium over PayPal's closing price the day before the news broke. PayPal shares surged on the report.
The proposed structure would have Stripe and Advent share ownership of PayPal equally, with no plans to break up the company. PayPal has not publicly responded to the offer, though the two suitors are reportedly pushing to advance talks over the coming weeks. This is not the first approach — an earlier bid was made in April.
The interest comes as PayPal has struggled to keep pace in an increasingly crowded payments market. Its market value has fallen from roughly $360 billion at its 2021 peak to about $36 billion today. New CEO Enrique Lores has been pushing restructuring efforts, including cutting around 4,760 jobs over two to three years, aiming for $1.5 billion in annual savings. If completed, the acquisition would rank among the largest payments-sector deals in years, following Global Payments' $24.25 billion purchase of Worldpay in 2025.