Stripe and Advent International Launch $53B Joint Bid for PayPal

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have jointly approached PayPal Holdings with a takeover offer valuing the payments giant at roughly $53 billion — a $60.50-per-share bid representing about a 30% premium over PayPal's Friday closing price. The approach was made in recent days, and PayPal shares jumped roughly 13% on the news Wednesday morning.

The offer arrives at a peculiar moment: PayPal is trading near historic lows, a stunning collapse from its Covid-era peak of over $300 per share in 2021, when the company commanded a market cap north of $280 billion. Today it sits at roughly $42 billion — less than a sixth of that peak valuation. The company issued a profit warning earlier this year, citing slowing growth in its core branded-checkout product and poor internal execution.

PayPal's new CEO Enrique Lores — the former HP chief who took the helm in March — has barely begun his turnaround plan. He's reorganizing the company into three distinct units: Checkout Solutions & PayPal; Consumer Financial Services & Venmo; and Payment Services & Crypto. He's also targeting at least $1.5 billion in cost cuts over two to three years, with a previously reported 20% staff reduction on the table. Lores has been blunt that PayPal has underinvested in its technology platform and wants to redirect spending toward AI.

Analysts are skeptical PayPal's board will bite. William Blair's Andrew Jeffrey called the offer a likely opening salvo and a potential low-ball, suggesting Stripe and Advent could theoretically push to $70 per share — though he doubted they would. He also questioned the fundamental industrial logic of combining a fast-growing private payments processor with a struggling legacy fintech giant.

Stripe, co-founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison and backed by Sequoia Capital, was valued at $159 billion earlier this year. Advent International, based in Boston, manages over $90 billion in assets across business services, healthcare, industrials, technology, and consumer sectors. A successful deal would be one of the largest fintech transactions ever attempted.