Shares of PayPal plunged 15.1% to $52.20 on August 28 after Advent International and Stripe officially abandoned their proposed $53 billion takeover bid, yanking the deal premium that had quietly propped up the stock for weeks. The collapse forces investors to confront an uncomfortable question: what is PayPal actually worth without a buyer standing behind it? PayPal Loses $9 Billion in Value Overnight as Stripe-Advent Walk Away — Now What Does Standalone PayPal Look Like?
Shares of PayPal cratered 15.1% to $52.20 on August 28 after Advent International and Stripe officially abandoned their proposed $53 billion acquisition — a potential deal that would have ranked as one of the biggest-ever leveraged buyouts. The collapse strips away the takeover premium baked into the stock over recent months and forces the market to value PayPal purely on its own fundamentals — a far less flattering exercise.
The $60.50 Bid That PayPal's Board Called Too Low
The consortium had offered $60.50 per share, valuing PayPal at more than $53 billion.
PayPal's board saw the bid as inadequate and cited regulatory and financing hurdles. That rejection now looks costly: at $52.20, shareholders sit 14% below the offer they were never given a chance to accept. The bid was itself a fraction of the roughly $360 billion valuation PayPal commanded as a pandemic-era darling in 2021.
A 40% Rally Evaporates, Leaving Just the Fundamentals
Takeover speculation, combined with stronger-than-expected Q2 earnings, had lifted PayPal's stock more than 40% this quarter. Much of that gain is now gone. In Q2, PayPal posted earnings of $1.38 per share, beating estimates of $1.28 by nearly 8%. But the operational picture is mixed: GAAP operating margin compressed to 17.8% , and full-year guidance calls for flat to slightly declining earnings against last year's $5.31. At $52.20, the stock trades at roughly 10× forward earnings — cheap, but reflecting real doubts about growth.
A New CEO's Turnaround Now Faces the Market Alone
CEO Enrique Lores, who took over in March from Alex Chriss, started a sweeping turnaround to simplify PayPal and sharpen its focus on growth.
In April, the company split into three units covering checkout, the Venmo consumer app, and payments and crypto.
Management also announced a $1.5 billion cost-cutting program over two to three years. Without a buyer providing an exit, these restructuring bets must now prove themselves quarter by quarter.
A Door Left Slightly Open
Bloomberg noted Stripe and Advent could still opt to bid for PayPal in the future. But with the stock resetting to a standalone valuation, any new approach would likely come at a lower price. Investors who bought on deal hopes now own a turnaround story — one that just lost its safety net.