Shares of PayPal rocketed as much as 16% after Reuters reported that payments rival Stripe and private equity heavyweight Advent International have jointly bid $60.50 per share — roughly $53 billion — to take the company private. The bid carries a roughly 28% premium to PayPal's latest closing price and follows an initial approach in April. For a stock that has lost more than 80% from its 2021 peak, the offer forces a stark question: is this a rescue, or a steal?
A Massive Bid Backed by Serious Money This is no speculative whisper. Sources said the offer was submitted earlier this month and is supported by around $50 billion in committed financing from banks.
Stripe, Advent, and Block are contributing $17 billion in equity for the offer.
PayPal's board will meet as soon as July 20 to discuss the offer. The size and structure — nearly all debt-financed — signals confidence in PayPal's cash flows but also puts a ceiling on what the buyers will pay.
Why Stripe Wants Its Rival's Consumer Empire
Stripe, a privately held payments company valued at $159 billion following a February employee tender offer, would gain a major foothold in consumer payments through the deal. Jefferies analyst Hannes Leitner laid out the logic: a Stripe-PayPal combination would target the consumer side — including Venmo and PayPal's checkout button — rather than duplicating merchant processing. PayPal had 439 million active accounts at the end of 2025, a user base Stripe simply cannot build from scratch.
PayPal's Long Decline Makes the Timing Razor-Sharp
At its height in 2021, PayPal's market cap reached around $360 billion; it has since dropped to approximately $36 billion this year.
PayPal issued disappointing profit guidance for 2026 and also replaced its former CEO this year.
PayPal announced plans to cut roughly 20% of its workforce — approximately 4,760 roles — as part of a restructuring expected to generate at least $1.5 billion in savings. Buyers are swooping in precisely when the turnaround is unproven and the stock is cheap.
The Gap Between the Bid and the Old Highs Tells the Real Story At $60.50, investors still sit roughly 80% below the 2021 peak of ~$310. Analyst targets currently range from $44 to $90, meaning the bid lands squarely in the middle. Global merger activity hit a record $2.8 trillion in the first half of 2026, and a deal this large would become a landmark for fintech consolidation. Shareholders now face a binary bet: hold for a bump, or gamble that a board negotiating from weakness can extract a richer price.