The CEO Trying to Fix PayPal Has a New Option: Sell It for Billions
By Ben Glickman and Peter Rudegeair
July 19, 2026 1:00 pm ET
Digital-payments pioneer PayPal PYPL-0.30%decrease; down pointing triangle is in a yearslong rut. Enrique Lores is tasked with saving it.
The 61-year-old was named chief executive of PayPal earlier this year after decades at HP HPQ2.90%increase; up pointing triangle and its predecessor company, Hewlett-Packard, which he played a key role in splitting up. Lores has since announced an ambitious turnaround plan for PayPal that includes reorganizing its business lines and slashing at least $1.5 billion in costs—moves reminiscent of the playbook he has deployed in his previous roles.
Now, one of PayPal’s rivals has lobbed a buyout offer.
Payments company Stripe and private-equity firm Advent International have made a joint takeover bid for PayPal, valued at some $53 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. The approach, made in recent days, represented about a 30% premium to PayPal’s recent stock price. Shares jumped 17% on Wednesday after the news broke.
The deal would bring together major players in the payments world—PayPal’s vast network of consumers and recognizable brands, and Stripe’s business providing transaction-processing infrastructure for merchants. Such heft would be an advantage in a rapidly changing payments ecosystem, which is poised to undergo further disruption from new tech like artificial intelligence and stablecoins.
PayPal’s peer-to-peer payment app Venmo may be particularly desirable. Its revenue rose 20% last year, and it boasts 67 million monthly active users who skew younger and more affluent.
A deal would also transform one of Silicon Valley’s most storied companies, whose yellow-and-blue button has long ruled online payments. PayPal’s founders and early employees are seen as the stuff of legend among startups, with the ranks of the so-called PayPal mafia, such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, going on to invest in or launch businesses that have become corporate heavyweights.
