PayPal shares fell as much as 16% in premarket trading after the pursuit collapsed, giving back much of a rally built on takeover speculation.
Advent International and Stripe have abandoned a reported pursuit of PayPal valued at roughly $50 billion to $53 billion, according to Bloomberg, which said PayPal's board had called the earlier offer inadequate. PayPal shares fell as much as 16% in premarket trading on the news, giving back a chunk of a rally that had taken the stock up more than 40% this quarter on the speculation.
None of PayPal, Stripe or Advent has commented on the record about the pursuit or its collapse, and no formal, binding offer appears to have been tabled before talks fell apart.
If the reported size holds up, this would have been one of the largest private equity-involved take-private pursuits of a public company attempted in the current cycle, and its collapse is a real-time data point on the practical ceiling of sponsor-led capital for a target of PayPal's scale, even in an otherwise active buyout market. The stock's round trip, a 40% run on speculation followed by a sharp reversal on its collapse, shows how much of that rally was pricing a deal that never firmed into something either side would confirm.