MarketsJul 15, 2026
Stripe's Ambitious PayPal Bid Comes With a Big Question
Fintech Consolidation
Rhea Lobo
Discover
Stripe and Advent International have jointly offered $60.50 per share to acquire PayPal, valuing the payments company at more than $53B.
The offer, submitted earlier this month, carries a 28% premium to PayPal's closing price on Tuesday and is backed by roughly $50B in committed bank financing.
Stripe, Advent, and Block are collectively contributing $17B in equity.
PayPal's board is expected to meet as soon as Jul. 20 to discuss the offer. PayPal hasn't formally responded, and Stripe and Advent are seeking to advance talks in the coming weeks. The companies would hold equal stakes under the proposed structure.
Stripe's business has been overwhelmingly focused on merchants. PayPal brings more than 430M consumer accounts, the peer-to-peer Venmo network, and a consumer-facing checkout button, assets that could accelerate Stripe's push into digital wallets.
Combining the two platforms would process roughly $3.7T in annual payment volume, creating one of the world's largest online payments companies.
A merged entity could also route more transactions across its own network, reducing reliance on Visa and Mastercard and bypassing transaction fees.
The deal could also advance Stripe's stablecoin ambitions by giving it a vast consumer distribution network for mainstream adoption of stablecoin-based payments. Stripe has invested heavily in its crypto unit, Bridge.
PayPal's market cap peaked at roughly $360B in 2021 and has fallen as low as $36B this year. The stock is down 18% year to date and 35% over the past 12 months.
At $60.50 per share, the offer is less than a fifth of PayPal's Jul. 2021 high of $308.52.
Several analysts and investors think the bid undervalues the company. William Blair analyst Andrew Jeffrey said PayPal's new CEO likely won't embrace what could be seen as a low-ball offer and that Stripe and Advent could go as high as $70 per share if this is an opening move.
"The company is well below intrinsic value, and any successful bid should be well above intrinsic value to account for the control premium."
Michael Burry, "Big Short" Investor
PayPal has been under pressure from Apple Pay, Google Pay, Block, Affirm, and Klarna.
It issued disappointing profit guidance at the start of 2026 and replaced CEO Alex Chriss with HP's Enrique Lores, who has been restructuring the business into three units covering checkout, Venmo, and payments and crypto.
Lores has also outlined $1.5B in cost savings over the next two to three years, with plans to reinvest those savings into new growth. Whether PayPal's board views the Stripe-Advent offer as a fair exit or a distraction from that turnaround will likely determine where this deal goes next.
