Hajra Naz
Word on the street is that Stripe might be looking to buy some or all of PayPal Holdings, though sources tell Bloomberg it’s still super early days—and there’s no guarantee anything will actually happen.
The chatter comes the same day Stripe dropped its annual letter to investors, which has some big updates. The headline? Stripe is doing a tender offer that values the company at $159 billion—that’s up 74% from last year. Investors getting in on employee shares include Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital. Oh, and Stripe also plans to buy back some stock while they’re at it.
This puts Stripe firmly back in the spotlight as one of the most valuable private companies in fintech. Dublin-based co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison recently told CNBC that going public isn’t really on the table right now.
Meanwhile, PayPal Holdings—which includes the main PayPal app, Venmo, and other services—is a public company with a market cap of around $40 billion. Following the news, PayPal’s stock got a slight boost, though Stripe hasn’t commented on the rumors.
Basically, it’s still just a “maybe,” but it’s enough to get the fintech world buzzing.
