Stripe and Advent make $53B bid to take PayPal private
Stripe Inc. and private equity firm Advent International L.P. have reportedly offered more than $53 billion to buy PayPal Holdings Inc. in a deal that would take PayPal private and place one of the pioneers of online payments under the control of a younger, faster-growing rival.
The bidders are not looking to break the company apart. Stripe and Advent would hold equal stakes and keep PayPal operating as one business.
The offer is non-binding and could still come apart in negotiation or regulatory review. Financing, at least, looks secured, with about $50 billion in bank commitments already lined up, according to Reuters.
PayPal goes back to 1998. eBay Inc. bought the payments service in 2002 for $1.5 billion, then spun it off as its own public company in 2015. Stripe was founded in 2010 and the younger company is now the larger one by valuation, a figure set at $159 billion in a February tender offer for employees and shareholders.
