A joint bid from payments rival Stripe and private equity giant Advent International has landed on PayPal’s boardroom table, valuing the digital payments pioneer at more than $53 billion. The consortium is offering $60.50 per share, a 28% premium to PayPal’s closing price the Tuesday before the offer was disclosed. The stock rocketed 17% on the news, hitting €48.49 in European trading, though that still leaves it well below its 52-week high of €70.78.
The offer comes at a moment of profound internal transformation. Enrique Lores, who took over as CEO in March, has already carved the company into three operating units — Checkout, Venmo, and Crypto — and outlined a sweeping cost-reduction plan that includes cutting roughly 20% of the workforce, or about 4,760 jobs. Lores has also bet heavily on artificial intelligence to drive efficiency, targeting $1.5 billion in total savings over the next two to three years. The freed-up capital is meant to accelerate digital payment products and deepen PayPal’s push into what the company calls “agentic commerce,” where merchants become discoverable on leading AI platforms.
The takeover approach is not entirely new. Sources say the suitors made an initial overture as early as April 2026, but the offer only became public in recent days. PayPal’s board is scheduled to meet on July 20 to discuss the proposal, according to CNBC. Analysts at William Blair have already signaled that the current bid may fall short, suggesting a price of up to $70 per share might be needed to win shareholder approval.
A combined Stripe-PayPal entity would dominate the merchant payment processing market, handling a collective annual payment volume of roughly $3.7 trillion — equivalent to about 3% of global GDP. Stripe itself was valued at $159 billion in a February funding round and processed $1.9 trillion in volume during 2025. The deal is expected to be financed with approximately $50 billion in bank debt, with Stripe and Advent splitting ownership equally. The buyers have indicated they intend to keep PayPal intact rather than break it up.
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The stock’s latest surge builds on an earlier rally tied to the restructuring news. In the week before the bid was reported, PayPal shares had already climbed more than 20% to €41.42 on optimism over the AI-driven cost cuts and the division into three business lines. That rally pushed the relative strength index to 78.3, a technically overbought reading, and the stock remained below its 200-day moving average of €44.86. The bid announcement erased those concerns for now, though the stock still trades 28% below the offer price in dollar terms.
Regulatory scrutiny is almost certain. A combined Stripe-PayPal could control an estimated 65% of the global online payments market, and both companies are active in the stablecoin space. PayPal’s PYUSD has grown to a market capitalization of about $2.9 billion, while Stripe bought the Bridge platform for $1.1 billion in 2025 to bolster its own digital asset capabilities. Antitrust authorities in multiple jurisdictions are expected to review any deal closely.
The bidders are pushing for a final agreement by the end of July, but much depends on whether Lores and the PayPal board can secure a higher price. For now, the company’s first-quarter results showed underlying business momentum: revenue rose 7% to $8.35 billion, and total payment volume increased 8% to $464 billion. Yet the stock’s yawning gap from its 2021 peak of roughly $360 billion in market value — now around $36 billion — explains why Stripe and Advent see an opening.
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