PayPal sale to Stripe and Advent back on track at $53 billion valuation

Talks to sell PayPal to a consortium of Stripe and private equity firm Advent are heating up again, and a deal could be reached in the coming weeks, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal citing unnamed sources.

The prospect of a sale first emerged in July, when Stripe and Advent offered $60.50 per share for PayPal, valuing the fintech company at $53 billion. PayPal initially balked at the proposal, but negotiations apparently never stopped and have now resumed with renewed momentum. PayPal declined to comment on the report, while a Stripe spokesperson said the company does not "comment on rumors or speculation."

The talks come as PayPal CEO Enrique Lores pushes forward with a turnaround plan meant to reverse the company's lagging trajectory. Lores joined PayPal in March after years at HP, and in April he unveiled the first steps of his strategy: an executive shuffle and a split of the business into three operating units — checkout solutions and PayPal, consumer financial services including Venmo, and payment services and crypto. A month later, Lores told investors that PayPal would recommit to the fundamentals, which included "becoming a technology company again."

The turnaround also includes a cost-saving program expected to cut the workforce by 20% over the next two to three years.

PayPal was founded in 1998 by a group of entrepreneurs who went on to become Silicon Valley luminaries, including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek. The company ballooned during the pandemic thanks to an e-commerce boom, but has struggled in recent years as growth normalized and competition intensified. A sale to Stripe and Advent would mark a dramatic exit for one of the most iconic names in online payments.