Stripe and Advent International Abandon $50 Billion PayPal Takeover Bid, Sending Shares Down 14%

A consortium led by Stripe and Advent International has formally abandoned its pursuit of PayPal Holdings, Bloomberg reported on August 28, triggering a sharp selloff that sent shares down as much as 15% in premarket trading to $52.50, before settling around a 14% decline to roughly $54. The consortium had offered $60.50 per share in July, valuing PayPal at more than $50 billion, but PayPal's board rejected the bid as insufficient given regulatory and financing concerns. The collapse erases a takeover premium that had propped up the stock in recent months, with shares having climbed 5.4% over the prior 30 days to close at $61.47 before the news broke.

The failed deal is a steep comedown from PayPal's peak valuation of $360 billion in 2021. Prediction market Polymarket reflected the finality of the news, with its contract on a Stripe acquisition of PayPal in 2026 collapsing to a 10% implied probability from a peak of around 70% during the summer. Rival buy-now-pay-later names moved sharply in the opposite direction, with Affirm jumping 13%, Klarna gaining 6%, and Sezzle rising 2% as traders rotated into PayPal competitors.

PayPal, which reported $34.1 billion in annual revenue, must now execute its turnaround independently under new CEO Enrique Lores, with analysts pointing to stable branded checkout cash flows and mid-teens growth in its Braintree unit as the primary levers, while competitive pressure from Apple Pay and Google Pay remains a persistent headwind. Hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who built a position in PayPal, faces an early test of his thesis with the deal now off the table.