Negotiations for Stripe and Advent International to acquire PayPal have intensified after an initial $53 billion offer was rejected in July, with sources saying a deal could come together within weeks.
Negotiations to sell PayPal to a consortium of payments company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have resumed and could produce a deal within weeks, according to people familiar with the matter — underscoring the mounting pressure facing PayPal's recently installed chief executive.
The prospect of a sale, first reported by TechCrunch, comes after Stripe and Advent put forward an offer in July that would have valued PayPal at roughly $53 billion, or $60.50 per share. PayPal rejected that bid, but the two sides never fully broke off contact, and talks have since re-intensified, according to the people.
PayPal declined to comment on the reported negotiations. A Stripe spokesperson said the company does not "comment on rumors or speculation."
The discussions place fresh scrutiny on CEO Enrique Lores, who joined PayPal in March after an extended tenure at HP. Lores has been executing a restructuring plan aimed at reversing the company's declining trajectory following a pandemic-era surge in e-commerce that temporarily inflated its user base and revenues.
In April, Lores announced the first concrete steps in that plan: an executive shake-up and a reorganization of the business into three distinct operating models covering checkout solutions and the core PayPal brand, consumer financial services including Venmo, and payment services and crypto.
The following month, Lores told investors that PayPal would "recommit to the fundamentals," framing that effort around what he described as "becoming a technology company again."
The restructuring also includes a cost-reduction program that is expected to reduce PayPal's total workforce by 20% over the next two to three years, signaling the depth of the operational changes Lores believes are necessary.
PayPal was founded in 1998 by a group of entrepreneurs who later became prominent figures in Silicon Valley, including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin, and Luke Nosek, among others.
A successful acquisition by Stripe — itself one of the most closely watched private companies in the payments sector — and Advent would represent one of the larger consolidations in the fintech industry in recent years, combining two companies that occupy significant and overlapping positions in digital payments infrastructure.
Whether the revised negotiations produce a deal remains to be seen. PayPal's initial rejection of the $60.50-per-share offer suggests the company's board views that figure as insufficient, and any final transaction would likely require agreement on valuation terms that both sides find acceptable.
Marc Sabatini is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering enterprise software, cybersecurity, and the regulatory beats that shape both. He focuses on the deal flow and policy decisions that move markets.
More from Marc →The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has conditionally approved a national trust bank charter for World Liberty Trust Co., an entity tied to the Trump family-backed crypto firm World Liberty Financial, drawing immediate criticism from Democratic lawmakers.
OpenAI revenue chief Denise Dresser and operating chief Brad Lightcap have both departed within days of each other, amplifying investor concerns about C-suite stability as the company pursues an IPO at an $852 billion valuation.
The price gap between U.S. COMEX copper futures and London Metal Exchange prices has become a real-time market gauge of Section 232 tariff risk, with Societe Generale estimating a 37% probability of a 30% duty on refined copper by January 2028.
Written for readers who already know the basics — markets, AI, and the policy decisions that shape both.