Stripe e Advent podem aumentar oferta pelo PayPal

Stripe and Advent may increase the offer for PayPal, after the initial proposal of $60.50 per share was deemed insufficient, according to the Wall Street Journal. The two parties may reach an agreement in the coming weeks, but there are no guarantees the transaction will be completed. The initial offer, made in July, valued PayPal at around $53 billion.

This was considered too low by the company's board, who believed the price did not capture the potential for the company's recovery under new CEO Enrique Lores. Since taking the helm in March, Lores has implemented cost cuts, reorganized the business, and invested in artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, two major PayPal operations - Venmo, an American version of "Pix," and Braintree, a payments platform for businesses and marketplaces - continue to grow.

Morgan Stanley, however, sees limited options for PayPal to unlock value. The bank noted that competition in the sector, technological lag, and other challenges make it difficult for the company to sustain a renewed growth acceleration. In this scenario, the bank views the sale as an "attractive exit" for PayPal shareholders whose strategic flexibility has diminished.

That assessment, however, is far from unanimous. Morningstar calculates the fair value of PayPal at $80 per share, 32% above the initial offer. Analyst Brett Horn believes the proposal reinforces the thesis that the market had been excessively pessimistic about the company. For Stripe, the operation would also provide a strategic gain: the company, valued at $159 billion, would combine its strong presence among merchants with PayPal's vast consumer base of around 430 million accounts and assets such as Venmo, creating one of the world's largest online payment platforms.

Now, the question is how much Stripe and Advent are willing to pay for that value - and how much PayPal is willing to give up its recovery plan for an immediate exit.