PayPal shares slide as Stripe and Advent abandon reported $50B+ takeover pursuit

PayPal shares slide as Stripe and Advent abandon reported $50B+ takeover pursuit

PayPal shares opened about 15% lower on Friday after Stripe and private equity firm Advent International abandoned their multi-month pursuit of the digital payments company, according to reports.

The consortium, which reportedly also included Block founder Jack Dorsey, had offered $60.50 per PayPal share in mid-July, valuing the company at roughly $53 billion.

PayPal’s board rejected the proposal as insufficient, and subsequent negotiations did not produce an agreement on a higher price.

PayPal shares had climbed more than 40% during the quarter amid takeover speculation and stronger-than-expected second-quarter results.

The rally had pushed the company’s market capitalization to about $52.6 billion before Friday’s decline, reducing the premium implied by the consortium’s initial offer.

Following news that the talks had ended, PayPal shares fell as much as 16% to 18% in premarket trading, giving back a substantial portion of their recent gains.

The proposed transaction would have ranked among the largest leveraged buyouts on record and would have brought together Stripe’s merchant infrastructure with PayPal’s consumer payments business, including Venmo.

Stripe is also reportedly shifting some of its corporate development focus toward artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Earlier this month, the company announced an agreement to acquire OpenRouter, an AI model marketplace and gateway.

PayPal will now continue its turnaround strategy under CEO Enrique Lores, who took over in March following the departure of former CEO Alex Chriss.

The company is reorganizing its operations into three business units: Checkout, Consume...