PayPal Sweetens Shopping Ecosystem With $4B Honey Buy

PayPal has announced that it’s going to acquire Honey Science Corporation, a shopping discount and rewards platform.

The acquisition will cost PayPal $4 billion, and Honey will “transform the shopping experience for PayPal’s consumers while increasing sales and customer engagement for its merchants.”

Honey was founded in 2012 as a way for people to easily find savings while they shop online, and the company has steadily grown with offerings like a smartphone app, price-tracking and alerts on deals.

Honey said its savings for customers amounted to $1 billion in the past year. The platform works with more than 30,000 retailers in all shopping categories.

PayPal said it shares a common goal with Honey: to help simplify and better personalize the online shopping experience, while increasing sales and engagement for merchants. Both companies said they expect to continue to grow as a result of the deal.

“Honey is amongst the most transformative acquisitions in PayPal’s history,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal. “It provides a broad portfolio of services to simplify the consumer shopping experience, while at the same time making it more affordable and rewarding. The combination of Honey’s complementary consumer products with our platform will significantly enhance our ability to drive engagement and play a more meaningful role in the daily lives of our consumers. As a partner of choice for our merchants, this is another way that we can help them build and strengthen their customer relationships, provide personalized offers, and drive incremental sales. The combination of Honey and PayPal adds another significant and meaningful dimension to our two-sided platform.”

Honey is going to keep its headquarters in Los Angeles, as well as its branding. Company co-founders George Ruan and Ryan Hudson will continue to lead the company. They will be a part of PayPal’s global consumer product and technology organization, and report to Senior Vice President John Kunze.

“Honey’s vision has always been to give consumers the tools they need to make the best decisions with their money,” said Ruan. “PayPal shares that vision, and together we can build powerful commerce capabilities that create real value for both consumers and retailers around the world.”