Stripe’s PayPal Bid Puts Payments Firm in Play—Could Musk Jump In?

Are the Collison brothers looking to spice up their life? According to Reuters and other news outlets, the Collisons’ payments firm, Stripe, has teamed up with private equity firm Advent to make a $53 billion acquisition offer for PayPal. While the aging payments firm has lost the plot in recent years, this is not exactly a generous offer.

Though it’s pitched well above PayPal’s recent rock-bottom price, it’s below where the stock has traded for most of the past few years. In that sense it feels a bit like Stripe and Advent are engaging in bottom-fishing. It’s hard to imagine PayPal’s board will accept this offer. But it does put PayPal into play, raising the prospect that others might jump in with a higher number. A natural buyer could be Elon Musk’s SpaceX.