Stripe and Advent in Advanced Talks to Acquire PayPal
Negotiations to sell PayPal to Stripe and private equity firm Advent are advancing, with a deal potentially coming together in the coming weeks, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal on August 14, 2026 WSJ. TechCrunch, citing the same report, described the talks as "heating up" TechCrunch.
The renewed negotiations follow a July 2026 joint offer from Stripe and Advent to acquire PayPal at $60.50 per share, valuing the company at more than $53 billion. Reuters first reported the bid on July 15 Reuters, with CNBC confirming the terms the same day CNBC. PayPal's board rejected the offer, with Reuters reporting on July 16 that directors viewed the $60.50-per-share price as inadequate, though it represented a premium to PayPal's recent trading levels Reuters.
Despite the rejection, negotiations between the three parties never stopped, according to unnamed sources cited by the Journal. The WSJ cautioned that there are no guarantees the parties will reach an agreement. Seeking Alpha reported on August 14 that PayPal shares gained on the news of advanced talks Seeking Alpha.
Both PayPal and Stripe have declined to engage publicly on the matter. PayPal declined to comment on the renewed sale talks. A Stripe spokesperson said the company does not "comment on rumors or speculation" TechCrunch. PayPal was also reported to be working with Goldman Sachs and Evercore as advisors while suitors circled, per Bloomberg Bloomberg.
PayPal's Turnaround Under New Leadership
The acquisition discussions unfold against the backdrop of an aggressive internal turnaround at PayPal. CEO Enrique Lores took the helm in March 2026, appointed after the board ousted then-CEO Alex Chriss Reuters. CFO Jamie Miller had served as interim CEO until Lores assumed the role on March 1 Reuters. Lores joined PayPal after a career at HP.
In April 2026, Lores launched a restructuring plan that split PayPal's business into three operating units: checkout solutions and PayPal-branded products; consumer financial services, including Venmo; and payment services and crypto. Venmo was carved out as a separate business unit as part of the reorganization Reuters. The plan also included an executive shuffle and cost-saving measures expected to reduce PayPal's workforce by 20% over the next two to three years TechCrunch.
In May, Lores told investors that PayPal would recommit to fundamentals, including "becoming a technology company again" TechCrunch. The remarks came after PayPal beat first-quarter estimates on resilient consumer spending Reuters. On a post-earnings call in late July, Lores told analysts that management remained focused on maximizing long-term shareholder value Reuters. He has not commented on whether PayPal would pursue a sale Reuters.
What a Deal Structure Could Look Like
The structure of a potential deal pairing a strategic acquirer with a private equity firm is worth examining. Stripe, a company that builds payment-processing infrastructure primarily for online businesses and developers, would presumably absorb PayPal's checkout and merchant-facing infrastructure. Advent, a private equity firm that invests in companies using a combination of equity and borrowed money, could take on carve-out assets or provide the financial engineering to make the price work at scale. Whether PayPal's three-unit reorganization maps cleanly onto that kind of split is an open question, but Lores's restructuring at minimum gives potential acquirers cleaner lines along which to evaluate and partition the business.
For Stripe, a successful acquisition would consolidate two of the largest payments brands in the English-speaking world under one roof. Stripe's merchant-of-record strength and developer-first integration layer have long complemented, rather than competed with, PayPal's consumer-facing checkout brand. The combination would create a payments entity spanning both sides of the two-sided market at a scale neither has achieved alone.
For Advent, the appeal likely lies in the consumer financial services and crypto segments, particularly Venmo, which has long been viewed as undermonetized relative to its user base. The unit separation Lores implemented in April makes a carve-out more tractable than it would have been under the prior integrated structure.
PayPal was founded in 1998 by Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, and others, and has cycled through multiple eras of strategic identity since its spinoff from eBay. A deal at $53 billion would rank among the largest technology acquisitions of the decade, and the involvement of both a strategic buyer and a PE firm signals that no single party is prepared to absorb the entirety of PayPal's footprint alone. Whether the talks produce a signed agreement or dissolve into another rejected bid should become clear in the coming weeks.
