Stripe teamed up with private equity to bid 53 billion dollars, will PayPal be “compiled”?
Source: PanNews Author: Nancy Original title: From the founder of the industry to the 80% drop in stock prices, PayPal was revealed or “compiled” by Stripe for 53 billion dollars. Recently, it was revealed that payment unicorn Stripe teamed up with private equity giant Advent International to “consolidate” the former payment giant PayPal for 53 billion US dollars. After the news was announced, PayPal's stock price rose nearly 17.2%. This merger and acquisition rumor, which could reshape the global payment landscape, surfaced a few months ago, but up to now, PayPal has yet to officially respond, and the two sides have yet to enter into substantive negotiations. To buy PayPal for 53 billion US dollars, Stripe has yet to open the door of negotiations on July 15. According to Reuters quoting people familiar with the matter, Stripe and Advent International have jointly submitted a takeover offer to PayPal. The bid price is 60.5 US dollars per share, corresponding to a total valuation of over 53 billion US dollars. There is a certain premium over PayPal's current stock price of about 55.5 US dollars. Although the latest valuation of Stripe, which has not yet been listed, has risen to $159 billion, which is more than three times PayPal's current market value, in the face of a super acquisition of more than 53 billion US dollars, it is still difficult to complete the transaction with its own capital alone. According to people familiar with the matter, Stripe and Advent have received about 50 billion US dollars in bank financing commitments to provide major financial support for this acquisition. After the transaction is completed, the two parties plan to jointly hold PayPal after the transaction is completed, and each will hold 50% of the shares, rather than split sales or asset divestment of PayPal according to traditional private equity practices. This transaction structure is not common in the fintech industry. Normally, technology companies tend to complete acquisitions independently in order to quickly integrate the business; private equity funds prefer to gain control through leveraged acquisitions, and then use asset restructuring, split sales, etc. to achieve exit and maximize profits. However, Stripe and Advent chose equal shareholding this time, not only sharing the financial pressure required for large-scale mergers and acquisitions, but also complementing the advantages of industrial resources and capital capacity. Among them, Stripe is responsible for industry collaboration and business integration, thereby further consolidating its leading position in the online payment field. For Stripe, PayPal's biggest competitive advantage is not a single business, but rather a complete ecosystem built by consumers, merchants, and payment networks. If sold separately, it will not only weaken the network effect between consumers and merchants, but also affect brand value and limit its future development space. Therefore, for Stripe, retaining the value of the PayPal platform in its entirety is far more of a long-term strategic value than acquiring a few separate assets. In contrast, Advent played more of a “capital bridge” in this transaction. As a world-renowned private equity fund, it has long been deeply involved in the field of fintech. It not only has rich experience in large-scale leveraged acquisitions, but is also good at enhancing corporate value through optimized operations and capital operations. According to public information, since 2008, Advent has invested more than 7.8 billion US dollars in 18 payment and fintech companies. Among them, one of the most representative examples is the completion of the privatization acquisition of Canadian fintech company Nuvei for approximately US$6.3 billion in 2024. Therefore, this potential transaction is not a financial investment in the traditional sense; it is more like a long-term strategic integration around the global payments ecosystem. In fact, as early as February of this year, it was reported in the market that Stripe had issued an initial takeover offer to PayPal. According to a source familiar with the matter recently, Stripe and Advent hope to push for negotiations in the next few weeks, but there is still great uncertainty about whether the deal will finally land. As of now, PayPal has not publicly responded to this. However, according to foreign media reports in February of this year, PayPal did not begin negotiations with Stripe or any other company to sell itself at the time, and has been cooperating with investment banks over the past few months to prepare for possible aggressive investor actions or malicious takeover offers. According to sources, this series of preparations stemmed from a sharp drop in PayPal's stock price, and the company's management feared that the shrinking market value could make it a target for external capital attacks or acquisitions. However, the market also speculates that currently Stripe's offer may not be enough to persuade PayPal's board of directors and shareholders to accept the deal; it is more like an exploratory offer. Considering that large-scale mergers and acquisitions often require multiple rounds of gaming and bargaining, if Stripe wants to finally complete this acquisition, it hasn't...
