PayPal Shares Plunge: Fintech Giant Stripe Has Abandoned Its Bid to Acquire the Company — Bloomberg

A consortium led by investment fund Advent and payment giant Stripe has abandoned plans to acquire PayPal, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The group had previously offered more than $50 billion for the company—the potential deal could have been one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history, the agency notes.

Against this backdrop, PayPal shares fell 15% in after-hours trading on August 27. Representatives from Advent, PayPal, and Stripe declined to comment.

Bloomberg reported back in February that Stripe was considering acquiring part or all of PayPal following a sharp drop in its stock price since the beginning of the year. In July, Reuters learned that the payment giant, together with Advent International, had made a buyout offer to PayPal. At the time, Stripe and Advent valued PayPal shares at $60.50 each, which represented a 30 percent premium over their market price. However, sources at The Wall Street Journal said a few days later that PayPal considered the offer insufficient —the companies were negotiating a potentially higher deal price.

Now, however, Advent, PayPal, and Stripe may resume discussions about a potential acquisition if the situation changes, according to Bloomberg.

Before reports emerged of a possible buyout, PayPal shares were trading at a historic low, the WSJ noted. Among other factors, the company was under pressure from competition with Apple and Alphabet, as well as the prospect of slowing growth in its flagship product—its proprietary online payment service, which allows customers to pay via PayPal when shopping online.

However, reports of Stripe’s interest in PayPal coincided with the company’s second-quarter results, which exceeded analysts’ expectations, and helped PayPal’s stock recover from its year-to-date decline. The company’s stock has risen more than 40% this quarter, and PayPal’s market capitalization has exceeded $52.5 billion.

Since the beginning of 2026, the company’s stock has risen by just over 5%. Nevertheless, Wall Street remains cautious about PayPal’s outlook: most analysts covering the stock—34 of them—advise holding it in portfolios, while eight experts recommend buying and four recommend selling. The average target price for the company’s stock—$57.13 per share—is 7% below its last closing price.

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