Stripe wants to buy Pay Pal? What’s behind the rumored $53 billion deal?
On Thursday, media quoted news that Stripe, a financial technology company jointly owned by the United States and Ireland, and Advent International, an American private equity company, jointly proposed to acquire PayPal, an established online payment company in the United States. It is reported that the acquisition price of the transaction is US$60.5 per share, with an overall valuation of more than US$53 billion. It is backed by approximately US$50 billion in financing commitments from multiple banks. The acquisition price represents a premium of approximately 28% to PayPal's closing price on Tuesday.
On Thursday, media quoted news that Stripe, a financial technology company jointly owned by the United States and Ireland, and Advent International, an American private equity company, jointly proposed to acquire PayPal, an established online payment company in the United States. It is reported that the acquisition price of the transaction is US$60.5 per share, with an overall valuation of more than US$53 billion. It is backed by approximately US$50 billion in financing commitments from multiple banks. The acquisition price represents a premium of approximately 28% to PayPal's closing price on Tuesday. According to the transaction plan reported by the media, Stripe and Advent will jointly own PayPal, with each party holding 50% of the shares. At present, PayPal has not responded to this proposal, and it is not yet possible to confirm whether the transaction can be completed in the future. It is worth noting that Stripe and Advent expressed acquisition intentions to PayPal in April this year, but at that time they were only in the preliminary testing stage. In terms of status, PayPal was founded in the late 1990s and is a "big brother"-like existence in the field of digital payments. Founded in 2010, Stripe is currently the world's largest private payments company. In the market, as competitors such as Apple Pay and Google Pay continue to seize market share, big brother PayPal is facing increasingly fierce competition, including pressure from slowing transaction growth and weakening profit margins. The company's market capitalization reached a peak of approximately US$360 billion in 2021, but fell all the way to US$36 billion in June this year, leaving only one-tenth. The closing market value on Tuesday was approximately US$41.7 billion. On the other hand, Stripe, a new payment company, issued an equity buyback offer to employees and shareholders in February this year, and the company's overall valuation reached US$159 billion. Image source: Red Stag Fulfillment According to public data, Stripe will account for approximately 20.8% to 29% of the global payment market in 2025, becoming the second largest player in the industry after PayPal. Acquisition interest and M&A boom As a private company with a valuation much higher than the target company, Stripe teamed up with PE institutions to acquire a listed giant. The market generally believes that on the one hand, it confirms the strong interest of payment service companies in PayPal's technology and market position, and on the other hand, it also indicates a possible integration trend in the financial technology (payment services) industry. Some industry analysts pointed out that Stripe’s interest in acquiring PayPal lies in its large-scale user account system. The data and transaction flow carried by PayPal’s 434 million consumer accounts are the core value of its operation as an independent brand. In addition, industry insiders said that if Stripe successfully acquires PayPal, it will further promote the recent integration boom in the global payment field. According to statistics from many international institutions, merger and acquisition activities in the global financial technology and payment fields have increased significantly since 2025. The number of M&A transactions in the financial technology field reached 55, with a total transaction value of US$64 billion, an increase of 108% from 2024. By 2026, the industry generally believes that M&A transactions in the financial technology and payment fields are likely to be dominated by capability-driven transactions, and payment companies are increasingly inclined to expand scale and enhance competitiveness through M&A. Typical examples include: American financial technology company FIS acquired the card issuer processing department of Global Payments for US$13.5 billion, which was completed in January this year; Capital One of the United States completed its acquisition of Discover for US$51.8 billion and completed the transaction in May this year, integrating payment network capabilities into its own business territory. (