Stripe and private equity firm Advent International made a joint offer to buy PayPal for $60.50 a share, valuing it above $53B, according to Reuters. About $50B in committed bank financing backs the bid, a roughly 28% premium to PayPal’s Tuesday close that sent its shares up nearly 17%. Stripe and Advent would jointly own PayPal with equal stakes rather than break it up, though PayPal hasn’t responded to the offer, which follows an initial April approach. PayPal’s consumer accounts, Venmo, and checkout button would pair with Stripe’s merchant-heavy business, pushing more payments onto Stripe’s own network and boosting its stablecoin ambitions. Together they would rank among the world’s largest online payments firms, arriving as PayPal struggles under a turnaround after its value fell from a 2021 peak near $360B.
