Five years ago, PayPal was a Wall Street darling and a digital payments leader. Since then, its stock has tumbled, Apple Pay has come to dominate U.S. payment services, and the company is now confronting an unwelcome takeover bid. What comes next?
The company synonymous with digital payments this past week got a $53 billion offer to be taken private by upstart rival Stripe and buyout shop Advent International. PayPal's board is discussing the bid but believes $60.50 a share is not enough, people familiar with the company said.
It is a comedown for a company that helped to pioneer e-commerce and email-based payments, launching the careers of tech titans Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in the process.
Founded in 1998, the San Jose, California, firm was acquired by eBay in 2002 and spun off as an independent company in 2015. Continued growth pushed its market value as high as $360 billion in 2021.
But since then, its growth has slowed, and competition intensified, while multiple attempts in recent years to jumpstart its business have borne little fruit.
