PayPal CEO Enrique Lores’ turnaround plan for the fintech company could include a sale…of itself.
The prospect first emerged in July, when Stripe and private equity giant Advent offered to buy PayPal for $60.50 per share in a deal that would have valued it at $53 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
PayPal resisted. But negotiations apparently never stopped and a deal could be reached in the coming weeks, according to new reports by the WSJ, which cited anonymous sources.
PayPal declined to comment on the report. A Stripe spokesperson said the company does not “comment on rumors or speculation.”
Negotiations take place while Lores tries to save the company. of its lagging trajectory.
Lores joined PayPal in March, after spending years at HP. In April, Lores took the first steps in his recovery planincluding an executive reorganization and splitting the business into three operating models: payment solutions and PayPal, consumer financial services (and Venmo), and payment services and cryptocurrency. A month later, Lords told investors that PayPal would recommit to the fundamentals,” which included “returning to being a technology company.”
PayPal’s turnaround will also include cost-saving plans, which are expected to reduce its workforce by 20% over the next two or three years.
PayPal was founded in 1998 by several men who became Silicon Valley luminaries, including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek and others. The company has fought in recent years, after skyrocketing during the pandemic due to the rise of e-commerce.