The tech industry has already seen one or two billion-dollar deals. But this one – at least this year – could put everything in the shade. Because Paypal wants to take over Pinterest for a whopping 45 billion US dollars.
Paypal: Pinterest takeover for 45 billion US dollars
This could truly be a mega-class deal: The payment service Paypal wants to buy into the social network Pinterest for 45 billion US dollars, as Bloomberg reports with reference to insiders.
Talks between the two tech companies are already in full swing. In the process, about 70 U.S. dollars per share for the purchase of Pinterest would be in the air. The two companies are said to want to close the deal by the beginning of November.
Paypal no longer wants to be just a payment service
The possible purchase of Pinterest underscores Paypal’s efforts to move away from being a pure payment service. According to Bloomberg, the group wants to develop into a “super app”. To this end, Paypal wants to expand its offering to include savings accounts or functions for stock investments, among other things.
Paypal expects its active user base to grow from 403 million to 750 million by the end of 2025, which could put the payment service on a par with Facebook or Amazon.
The business magazine quotes Barclays analyst Ramsey El-Assal: “The acquisition would be a big step for PayPal and would represent a significant entry into the advertising business.”
Paypal and Pinterest are pandemic winners
Paypal, Pinterest and the pandemic: it’s a match. The two platforms have benefited equally from the pandemic. Thanks to the boom in online commerce, Paypal shares have more than doubled since the beginning of 2020. Currently, the value is 225 euros.
And Pinterest was also able to capitalize on the pandemic because the do-it-yourself trend brought the platform more users during the various lockdowns.
The biggest purchase in Paypal’s history
For Paypal, this purchase would be the largest in the company’s history. Last year, the payment service provider acquired the price comparison app Honey for four billion US dollars. This deal seems almost like a bargain in comparison.
With the deal, Paypal would even surpass the LinkedIn purchase by Microsoft. In 2016, the Windows company paid $26 billion for the career network.
And the acquisition of Slack by Salesforce at the end of 2020 would also put Paypal and Pinterest in the shade. At that time, 27.7 billion US dollars changed hands.
