No negotiations: PayPal wants to fend off takeover attempts
The payment service PayPal has anticipated takeover interest and wants to defend itself, reports a US news site. Stripe will likely come away empty-handed.
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PayPal does not intend to agree to an acquisition and, on the contrary, has been working for months to fend off such attempts. This is reported by the US internet magazine Semafor, citing informed sources who are not named. Explicitly, this means that PayPal is neither in talks with Stripe nor with any other company about an acquisition. Negotiations with banks about fending off such attempts were reportedly already started under the now-dismissed PayPal CEO Alex Chriss. It is now unclear how his designated successor will proceed in this matter. Enrique Lores will start his work at the beginning of next week.
Stock declining
Bloomberg made it public earlier this week that several companies are interested in acquiring PayPal or parts of the payment provider. The financial news agency stated at the time that PayPal itself had initiated talks with banks. While it was unclear at the time for what exact purpose, Semafor now explains that it was about fending them off. The new report suggests that PayPal anticipated the takeover attempts after months of decline in its stock price. While it was over 78 US dollars a year ago, it had fallen below 41 US dollars a week ago. After the back and forth about a possible takeover, it was recently around 46 US dollars.
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Given the negative business development at PayPal, the CEO was already dismissed with immediate effect at the beginning of February. Next week, the previous Chairman of the Board of Directors, Lores, will take the helm; he was previously CEO of HP for six years. However, this has not calmed the stock markets either; quite the contrary. The stock price plummeted by almost 20 percent solely after this abrupt change in leadership. Investors were also dissatisfied with PayPal's vague outlook. The payment provider had hoped for future growth, particularly through AI agents that are supposed to spend consumers' money, as well as from advertising revenue and so-called stablecoins.
(mho)
