Stripe is considering acquiring all or part of PayPal, according to a new report from Bloomberg, adding new momentum to takeover speculation for the beleaguered payments giant.
These discussions are preliminary and there is no certainty that a transaction will materialize.
The report was released hours after Stripe released its annual letter and announced that a recent employee tender offer valued the company at $159 billion. The company also revealed $1.9 trillion in total payments in 2025, highlighting accelerating growth across enterprise customers, stablecoin activity, and AI-driven commerce tools.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg separately reported that PayPal was attracting acquisition interest after a long period of weak stock prices and slowing growth in payments. PayPal shares soared nearly 12% on Monday, then cooled, before rising again on news of Stripe’s interest and ending Tuesday up nearly 7%.
Founded in the late 1990s, PayPal was a pioneer in digital payments, but has struggled to modernize its technology stack as competitors like Apple and Alphabet expand their payment services. The company’s latest quarterly results fell short of analysts’ expectations, with both profits and sales falling below, and payment growth continuing to slow.
Founded by Patrick and John Collison, Stripe has established itself as one of the world’s most valuable private fintech companies. In a recent interview, Stripe president John Collison acknowledged PayPal’s challenges, but declined to comment on potential acquisition scenarios and said he couldn’t discuss M and A’s hypotheticals.
PayPal is also planning a change in management. Enrique Lores will become president and CEO on March 1, replacing Alex Criss, who was fired this month.
