Analysts Say PayPal Stock Slump Makes It Takeover Target

PayPal Holdings has met with banks at a time when it is seeing unsolicited interest from would-be buyers, Bloomberg reported Monday (Feb. 23), citing unnamed sources.

The company is drawing takeover interest after its shares slid about 46% over the past year, according to the report.

At least one large company is considering buying the whole company, while others are looking at select assets, the report said.

The potential buyers are in the early stages of consideration, and the company may not change hands, per the report.

Reached by PYMNTS, PayPal declined to comment on the report.

According to the Bloomberg report, PayPal shares rose as much as 9.7% Monday after news of buyer interest was published.

PayPal announced Feb. 3, during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, that it was making a CEO change.

The firm said it named Enrique Lores to lead the next phase of its strategy, replacing Alex Chriss as the board presses for faster execution in a more crowded payments market.

Lores is set to become president and CEO on March 1. PayPal Chief Financial and Operating Officer Jamie Miller is serving as interim CEO until that time.

Lores has served on PayPal’s board for nearly five years and has been board chair since July 2024. He has served for more than six years as president and CEO of HP, where he led a shift beyond PCs and printing, and helped build on the separation of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP.

During the Feb. 3 earnings call, Miller said that PayPal realized its “execution has not been what it needs to be.”

“We have not moved fast enough or with the level of focus required, and we are taking immediate steps to address that reality,” Miller said.

PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote at the time in a post on LinkedIn that the CEO change did not come as a surprise because PayPal’s market cap remained where it was a decade ago and its place as the default checkout button on the web has diminished.

“The big question now is why Lores and why now,” Webster wrote. “A look at his resume might hold some clues. He led the separation of HP into two business units in 2014. Could that be PayPal’s next move?”