Stripe and a Private Equity Firm Have Given Up on Buying PayPal
Stripe and the investment firm Advent International have dropped their plan to buy PayPal, according to people familiar with the matter reported by Bloomberg on August 28, 2026 (Bloomberg). The deal, valued at well over $50 billion, could have been one of the largest buyouts ever.
The offer was first made in July 2026, when PayPal's stock was trading near historic lows and the company was worth about $40 billion. Stripe and Advent proposed buying PayPal at $60.50 per share, a deal worth more than $53 billion, as reported by Reuters on July 16 (Reuters). The Wall Street Journal later confirmed that PayPal was in talks to sell itself to the Stripe-Advent group at that price (WSJ, published August 14). PayPal rejected the July offer.
After the August 28 report that the buyers had walked away, PayPal's shares dropped as much as 14% in after-hours trading.
The collapse came amid a volatile period for PayPal's stock price. The company's shares had risen 40% after its latest quarterly results beat expectations, a rally partly driven by the takeover rumors themselves. That price recovery likely made the buyout harder to justify. The original offer of $60.50 per share made more sense when PayPal was worth around $40 billion. After a 40% jump, the buyers would have had to raise their offer or accept a smaller profit, and either choice complicates the borrowed-money structure that a deal this large depends on.
Enrique Lores, who became PayPal's CEO in March 2026, has been restructuring the company into three units focused on checkout, Venmo, and payments including cryptocurrency. The restructuring is still in its early months, and the improved quarterly results were the first concrete sign that the plan may be working. For PayPal's board, turning down a $53 billion offer in July and then watching the stock climb 40% looks like the right call, at least for now.
Stripe had two main reasons to want PayPal. First, a merger would have reduced Stripe's dependence on the Visa and MasterCard payment networks, which sit underneath most of the transactions Stripe processes. Second, it would have given Stripe ownership of PayPal's Venmo app and its cryptocurrency features, adding a direct connection to everyday consumers alongside the business-facing services Stripe already provides. Think of it this way: Stripe helps businesses accept payments, while PayPal connects both shoppers and merchants. Combining them would have brought both sides of a transaction under one roof.
The broader context is that the payments industry has been consolidating around a few large platforms, and the companies that own the most steps in a transaction, from the consumer's app to the merchant's checkout to the underlying network, earn the most money per payment. Stripe's interest in PayPal followed that logic. The decision to walk away suggests the buyers could not agree on price, could not line up financing on acceptable terms, or decided that combining two large companies was too risky. A deal of this size would have required heavy borrowing by Advent and its partners, plus likely stock or cash from Stripe, which is itself a private company with its own valuation pressures.
PayPal now has to keep its recent momentum going without the boost that takeover interest gave its share price. The 14% after-hours drop reflects investors adjusting to that reality. Whether Lores's three-part restructuring can deliver enough improvement to justify PayPal's current stock price on its own is the question that will shape the company's path in the months ahead.
For Stripe, walking away means it still depends on the Visa and MasterCard networks and still lacks a consumer app with anything like Venmo's user base. The company may try again to reach consumers directly, or it may decide that its strength serving businesses is enough.
Neither Stripe nor Advent has publicly explained why they abandoned the pursuit. Bloomberg's report credited people familiar with the matter but did not specify the consortium's reasons.
