PayPal stock price continues to rise, rumors that Stripe is interested in acquiring all or part of the business

Investing.com - On Tuesday, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) stock rose for the second consecutive trading day amid ongoing speculation about the company’s potential acquisition — this time, with a potential buyer’s name also circulating.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that PayPal, after years of stagnant stock performance, has attracted acquisition interest, though the identity of the buyer was not disclosed. The stock surged 5.8% that day. On Tuesday, Bloomberg further reported that payments company Stripe is interested in acquiring all or part of PayPal’s business, causing the stock to rise another 6.7%.

Before further reports emerged, Bernstein analyst Harshita Rawat speculated that Stripe might be interested in PayPal’s Braintree division, which she estimates to be worth between $10 billion and $15 billion. Rawat also mentioned that JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) could be interested in this business unit.

In addition to Braintree, PayPal owns Venmo (estimated by Bernstein at around $5 billion) and its core PayPal business (valued between $20 billion and $25 billion). Rawat pointed out that private equity firms, Revolut, and American Express (NYSE: AXP) could also be potential buyers of all or part of PayPal’s business.

Meanwhile, Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev emphasized that Stripe’s valuation is approximately $159 billion, far exceeding PayPal’s market cap of $43 billion, making the deal “feasible from a scale perspective.”

Explaining why Stripe might acquire PayPal, Dolev noted that Stripe is a leader in e-commerce payment processing, handling a total payment volume of about $1.4 trillion. Acquiring PayPal’s Braintree division would add approximately $700 billion in total payment volume, significantly increasing scale and strengthening Stripe’s competitive position relative to Adyen.

Dolev also pointed out that while Stripe is widely regarded as a strong B2B player, it lacks visibility into consumer-facing terminals. In contrast, PayPal is one of the few globally recognized consumer payment networks and owns Venmo — widely considered the strongest consumer peer-to-peer payment brand.

“After merging, Stripe and PayPal could become major players in the stablecoin space, as stablecoins are increasingly becoming a critical component of global commerce,” he added.

Both PayPal and Stripe declined to comment on today’s rumors to Investing.com.

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