A consortium of Stripe and Advent International has ended its attempt to acquire PayPal, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The withdrawal removes a $60.50-per-share proposal that valued the payments company at just over $53 billion, a level the board had already signaled was insufficient and burdened by regulatory and financing obstacles.
The bid that never landed
Reuters reported in July that Stripe and Advent submitted their offer after an earlier three-way approach that included Block collapsed in April. Block exited before a formal bid was made, leaving Stripe and Advent to proceed alone. PayPal never issued a formal response, though directors privately dismissed the price as inadequate and flagged antitrust and funding risks that would have complicated any deal.
A valuation chasm
The $53 billion figure sits a long way from the roughly $360 billion the market assigned PayPal at its 2021 peak. Since then the company has lost ground to Apple Pay and Google Pay, and growth has decelerated. The consortium’s price represented a premium to the undisturbed share price, but the gap to the pandemic high underscores how far the narrative has shifted.
Lores’s reset
Enrique Lores took over as chief executive in March, replacing Alex Chriss, and quickly launched a restructuring. In April PayPal reorganized into three units, checkout, Venmo consumer financial services, and payments and crypto, alongside a round of management changes. The strategy is aimed at simplifying operations and refocusing on growth, but the market has yet to reward the overhaul.
What comes next
With the consortium gone, PayPal returns to executing its turnalone without a strategic alternative on the table. Investors will watch whether the new operating structure can reverse the share-price slide, and whether another buyer emerges at a price the board finds credible. For now, the company is on its own.