Stripe and Advent International have put a $60.50-a-share offer in front of PayPal, and PayPal's board reportedly sees the number as too low.
Stripe and Advent International are trying to buy PayPal for more than $53 billion. That alone is enough to stop you. PayPal was once the company every online payments startup measured itself against, and now Stripe, the private rival that grew up beside it, wants to own the whole thing.
According to a Reuters report, PayPal's board sees the $60.50-a-share bid as inadequate. It undervalues the company, they say, and carries financing and regulatory hurdles. PayPal hasn't formally responded. Stripe, Advent, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and PayPal all declined to comment to Reuters. That dry sentence matters: it tells you where the deal really is - serious, financed, and still nowhere near done.
The offer values PayPal at more than $53 billion. That's a 28% premium to its closing share price before Reuters first reported the bid. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have lined up about $50 billion in financing for the bidders. Stripe and Advent are putting in $17 billion of their own equity. Block was part of the first approach in April. Reuters reported that it left the consortium before the latest offer went in. That fixes one important point. Block isn't funding this current bid.
If the deal closes, Stripe and Advent would each hold an equal stake in PayPal rather than breaking it up from the start. Combine Stripe and PayPal and you get one of the world's largest online payments companies, processing about $3.7 trillion in annual volume. That's the strategic attraction. It's also the regulatory problem sitting in plain sight. You don't combine two of the most widely used payment platforms for internet merchants without giving antitrust officials plenty to read.
PayPal Has Room To Push Back
PayPal's board is not just arguing over a headline premium. Reuters reported that directors are weighing the offer against management's turnaround plan, possible competing offers, the certainty of the financing package, and the time it would take to complete a transaction. That's a lot of friction. It's also why the board's reported early view makes sense.
Look at the number. A $60.50 offer may look generous against a beaten-up stock, but PayPal's value problem didn't begin last week. The company has been fighting slower growth in its core checkout business while Apple Pay, Google Pay and Cash App keep eating into the daily habits PayPal used to own more comfortably. Venmo is still a name consumers know, but PayPal has had a harder time turning that popularity into the kind of earnings story investors want.
The market liked the bid anyway. PayPal shares jumped sharply after Reuters first reported the offer, with MarketWatch calling the move the stock's biggest single-day gain on record. Of course they did. When a company that has lost most of its pandemic-era market value suddenly gets a financed takeover proposal, investors don't wait for the board minutes. They mark the stock up first and ask the hard questions later.
Stripe's Own Price Tag Changes The Conversation
Stripe's role is what makes this more than another private equity approach. CNBC has reported that Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a February 2026 tender offer, nearly three times the value attached to PayPal in this bid. Patrick and John Collison have also kept Stripe private far longer than many expected. No quarterly earnings calls. No public market clock. Plenty of room to make a huge move if the financing works.
Frankly, that's the story underneath the story. A private company with no public shareholders is trying to absorb a 28-year-old public company that still sits on millions of consumer accounts and merchant relationships. PayPal's board would be negligent if it treated the first serious number as the final number.
There is also a practical escape route if regulators object. Reuters reported that the bidders have considered remedies, including separating PayPal's Braintree business or other assets and transferring them to Advent, which could combine them with payments investments such as Nuvei. That doesn't make approval easy. It does show the consortium knows the clean version of this deal may not survive first contact with regulators.
PayPal's next earnings report on July 28 now carries extra weight. Investors will be watching for signs that core checkout growth is stabilizing: a stronger operating story gives the board more room to push back. A weaker one gives Stripe and Advent a better argument that $60.50 is not an insult but a rescue price.
The board is due to keep meeting on the proposal, Reuters reported. Nothing is settled. Not accepted, not rejected, just not quiet any more. If you own PayPal, use Stripe, or build anything on payments rails, there's one fact worth watching: either the bidders raise the price, or PayPal has to prove its own plan is worth more.
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