BlockBeats News, July 15th - The world's largest private payment company, Stripe, and the U.S. private equity firm Advent International have jointly proposed to acquire the veteran online payment giant PayPal. The acquisition price is $60.5 per share, with a total valuation exceeding $53 billion, representing a premium of about 28% over PayPal's closing price on Tuesday. Behind this, there is about $50 billion in financing support pledged by multiple banks. According to the deal, Stripe and Advent will each hold half of PayPal's shares. After the news was announced, PayPal's stock price continued to rise by nearly 16% during intraday trading, reaching $54.935, with a trading volume exceeding $2.1 billion. Currently, PayPal has not responded to the proposal, and it is still uncertain whether the transaction can be completed. The two parties had preliminary exploratory discussions in April this year but did not proceed further.

PayPal used to be the absolute leader in the digital payment field, with a market value reaching about $360 billion in 2021. However, under continuous competition from rivals such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, its market value fell to about $36 billion in June this year, only one-tenth of its peak value. In contrast, Stripe, with a valuation of $159 billion from a share buyback in February this year, is estimated to hold a global payment market share of 20.8% to 29% by 2025, second only to PayPal.

Industry analysts pointed out that the core of Stripe's acquisition interest lies in the data and transaction value carried by PayPal's 434 million consumer accounts. Since 2025, global financial technology M&A transactions have reached $64 billion, an increase of 108% from 2024. Recently, FIS completed the $13.5 billion acquisition of Global Payments' issuing business unit, and Capital One completed the $51.8 billion acquisition of Discover, indicating a significant warming trend in industry consolidation.