Stripe and private equity fund Advent International filed a joint offer in early July to buy PayPal, valuing the online payment giant at more than $53 billion. The proposed price: $60.50 per share, a premium of 28% over the last closing price. The offer is based on nearly $50 billion in bank financing already completed, and the two buyers plan to share PayPal equally, without dismantling it. A first approach dates back to April, but this time, it is concrete: a formal offer on the table, which PayPal is currently refusing to seriously examine.
The key points of this article:
Stripe and Advent International have filed a joint offer to buy PayPal, valuing it at more than $53 billion at a premium of 28% per share. This potential buyout could become the largest fintech acquisition in history, reversing the usual trend where listed giants buy up promising startups.
A private company buying an S&P 500 heavyweight cannot be improvised
This would be, if the operation is successful, the largest fintech acquisition in history. And above all a scenario rare enough to be highlighted: a company still supported by venture capital which gets its hands on a listed company in the S&P 500. Usually, it is rather the opposite that happens, the listed giants buy out promising young companies. There, Stripe reverses the mechanics. However, PayPal is dragging its feet: management has, so far, shown no eagerness to open discussions, although CNBC reported on July 15 that Stripe and Advent still hope to advance negotiations in the coming weeks. Le Journal du Coin already mentioned this hypothesis in advance: Stripe would consider the acquisition of PayPal to dominate the era of stablecoins, in the words of analyst Ryan Yoon of Tiger Research, who saw it as the start of a possible “Stablecoin Summer”. The idea: to combine Stripe’s on-chain settlement technology with the payment ecosystem of PayPal, which has its own stablecoin, PYUSD. On paper, it makes sense. In fact, integrating two such different technical debts would be expensive and time-consuming.
Stripe is not discovering crypto with this offer
This is not an isolated bet. Stripe has already spent $1.1 billion by the end of 2024 to buy Bridgea specialist in on-chain settlement, and is also developing its own blockchain called Tempo alongside Paradigm. Furthermore, the Journal du Coin recently detailed why Stripe is betting 140 billion on USDC and AI agents, a strategy which is beginning to outline a clear motive: Stripe wants to own the entire digital payment chain, from the consumer’s wallet to final settlement in stablecoin. Buying PayPal is therefore not just an opportunistic financial operation. This is the piece that was missing transform Stripe into a dominant player in payments, both traditional and on-chain. It must be said that the sector is moving quickly at the moment. Mastercard put $1.8 billion on the table in March to buy the startup BVNK, and also position itself in stablecoins. Visa is following a similar path. In short, everyone wants their piece of the pie before traditional payment rails become obsolete. Will PayPal eventually give in, or will this offer remain a nice PR stunt with no follow-up? Given the premium offered and the financing already secured, it is difficult to imagine that Stripe and Advent would give up on the first refusal. The history of global payments could well be rewritten in the coming weeks, with or without PayPal’s agreement.