PayPal shares fell as much as 16% in after-hours trading on 28 August, closing at $53.66, down 12.71% from the previous day. Stripe and Advent were reportedly abandoning a proposed acquisition valued at approximately $53 billion.
On 28 August U.S. time, PayPal shares fell as much as 16% in after-hours trading before the market opened, and continued to trade around $53.74 during regular trading hours. The shares closed at $53.66, down 12.71% from the previous close, losing momentum after rising the previous day on expectations of an acquisition proposal.
The proposal was reported to involve Stripe and Advent acquiring PayPal at $60.50 per share. The company was valued at more than approximately $53 billion (¥8.48 trillion), but Bloomberg reported on the night of 27 August that the two companies were not pursuing the acquisition.
Following this development, PayPal’s market capitalization was valued at a level close to the reported acquisition amount, with its market capitalization as of the 28 August close reported at approximately $52.6 billion (¥8.416 trillion). The shares had risen from July onward following reports of the acquisition, but the report that the proposal had been scrapped has once again heightened uncertainty.
PayPal faces intensifying competition from rival payment services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, and is pursuing measures including management changes and workforce reductions in response to slowing growth.