PayPal rejects $53 billion offer from Stripe and Advent as too low

Size and Structure of the Offer

To finance the project, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have, according to the report, put together a package of around $50 billion in debt, "Die beteiligten Unternehmen lehnten Stellungnahmen ab oder waren zunächst nicht zu erreichen." Added to this is $17 billion in equity, "dazu kommen 17 Milliarden US-Dollar Eigenkapital von Stripe und Advent". The consortium is bringing around $50 billion in debt from JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley to the takeover, which are also acting as advisors to the consortium.

The background to the offer is a phase of significant share price losses. The PayPal share had previously lost around 35 percent of its value within twelve months and was thus well below its 2021 high, when the company's market capitalization had still been around $360 billion. When the offer was first made public this week, the share temporarily shot up by around 17 percent. The PayPal share then fell on the NASDAQ on Thursday after the official market close by 1.11 percent to $56.10.

Background: Share Price Collapse and Leadership Change

The leadership structure at PayPal had recently changed fundamentally. At this point, PayPal had just dismissed its CEO Alex Chriss, with successor Enrique Lores taking office on 1 March 2026. Against this backdrop, the new board is examining the offer particularly carefully and comparing it with the company's own restructuring program.

The committee is therefore weighing the offer against its own turnaround plan, also examining possible competing bids, and intends, according to Reuters, to hold further meetings on the matter. Added to this are doubts about the certainty of financing, antitrust factors, and the duration of a possible process. Analysts therefore initially expressed themselves cautiously and pointed to unresolved questions.

Competitive Pressure and Strategic Logic

Industry observers see the project against the backdrop of intensified competition. PayPal has been struggling in recent years with increasing competition from Apple Pay and Google Pay. A merger with Stripe would create one of the world's largest providers of online payments with an annual transaction volume of around $3.7 trillion. Stripe had already begun considering taking over PayPal in whole or in part in February 2026, which began in February 2026, when Bloomberg first reported on Stripe's considerations to take over PayPal in whole or in part.

In April 2026, Stripe, Advent International, and initially also Block approached PayPal, but Block dropped out before Stripe and Advent submitted the written offer of $60.50 per share on 14 July 2026. Stripe brought Advent on board as an equity partner because, according to Reuters, the payment service provider could not have shouldered the equity side of the deal alone.

Next Steps and Open Questions

At the same time, according to Reuters, Stripe and Advent have already considered spinning off PayPal's payment processor Braintree and transferring it to Advent, which could then combine the division with its own holdings such as Nuvei. Advent has already appeared several times as a buyer in the payments sector, including Worldpay, Vantiv, and most recently Nuvei. This track record gives the project a certain plausibility in the view of some observers.

It also remains open whether further bidders will come forward once the PayPal board formalizes its position. Reuters reports that the board is considering several options, including the search for competing bids as well as possible adjustments to the offer. Until then, according to analysts, the company's share price and valuation remain vulnerable to speculation.

The present report was written by Claudia Stephan, editorial team at finanzen.net, and is based, among other things, on information from Reuters.

Claudia Stephan, editorial team at finanzen.net