PayPal Share Soars 17% on Nasdaq After Stripe-Advent Buyout Reported

July 16: PayPal (PYPL) shares maintained most of their gains after Wednesday’s open and ended the session strongly higher on Nasdaq following a report that Stripe and Advent International had made a joint offer to buy PayPal at a price topping $53 billion. 

The stock climbed to $55.52 at closing, up $8.15 or 17.20%. That’s slightly off the premarket peak of $56.10, when shares were up as much as 18.43% shortly before 6 am ET; nonetheless, the move ranks among PayPal’s largest single-day percentage gains in recent years. Trading volume also increased to nearly 91 million shares traded by the closing bell from about 4.68 million shares traded in premarket trading alone. 

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PayPal was last seen rallying after Wednesday morning’s report that payments platform Stripe and private equity firm Advent International had offered to buy PayPal at $60.50 a share. That offer price would value PayPal at more than $53 billion. Sources told Reuters the bid was made earlier this month, topping PayPal’s closing price of $47.37 from Tuesday by 28%. That includes about $50 billion of committed bank financing, according to Reuters. 

PayPal has yet to comment on the bid or whether it will consider the offer. If PayPal does accept the deal, Stripe and Advent would each own half of PayPal. Sources told Reuters both parties would like to discuss the deal further over the next several weeks. 

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With the gain, PayPal stock bounced toward the middle of its 52-week trading range between $38.46 and $79.50, a major shift from where the shares spent most of their time in recent months. Traders had pushed PayPal stock toward the low end of that range over the year, with PayPal now down roughly 18% over the past 12 months. The stock now at least recouped a good deal of year-to-date losses. 

Advent International declined to comment to Reuters on the potential buyout. CNBC also reached out to PayPal and Stripe about the development. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported Stripe was valued at roughly $159 billion. CNBC previously reported in February that Stripe held early talks about a possible acquisition of PayPal. Those discussions have since evolved into a definitive offer, with Advent now taking a stake in PayPal as well. 

It’s unclear whether PayPal will entertain the offer, though Stripe and Advent may be interested for a few reasons. The buyout buzz surrounds PayPal as it contends with stiff competition in the payments sector from entrenched credit and debit card networks as well as newer companies like Stripe. Additionally, PayPal forecast weak growth back in April. The company projected 2026 full year adjusted profit would grow at a low single digit percentage rate to decrease at a low single digit percentage rate. 

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PayPal ousted CEO Chuck Unlike earlier this year after failing to revive the firm’s slowing growth. PayPal replaced Chriss with Enrique Lores, HP’s president and CEO, as its own president and CEO in March. In a July 7 research note, Citi analysts wrote PayPal was investing heavily to reverse course on slowing growth but warned investors were not confident management can achieve the turnaround. 

Still, if shares trade closer to $60.50 on a sustainable basis, the stock would have completed one of Wall Street’s bigger comebacks for 2022. Buyout rumors aside, PayPal had spent much of the last year under pressure from investors. 

Sources

• Nasdaq