--- title: "Stripe and Advent return for PayPal above $60.50 as AI shopping makes the account base the prize" description: "The Wall Street Journal reports Stripe and Advent are back above the $60.50 a share PayPal's board rejected in August, days before PayPal's first earnings print since the walk-away. The prize is the 430-million-account consumer network that AI shopping is about to make decisive." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Deals" published: 2026-10-26T13:22:57.836Z modified: 2026-10-26T13:22:57.836Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/stripe-and-advent-return-for-paypal-above-60-50-as-ai-shopping-makes-the-account-base-the-prize language: en keywords: "PayPal, Stripe, Mergers And Acquisitions, Payments, Agentic Commerce, Private Equity" --- # Stripe and Advent return for PayPal above $60.50 as AI shopping makes the account base the prize > The Wall Street Journal reports Stripe and Advent are back above the $60.50 a share PayPal's board rejected in August, days before PayPal's first earnings print since the walk-away. The prize is the 430-million-account consumer network that AI shopping is about to make decisive. [Stripe](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/stripe) and private equity firm Advent International are negotiating a renewed takeover of [PayPal](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/paypal) above the $60.50 a share, roughly $53 billion, that PayPal's board rejected in August, according to The Wall Street Journal, with about $50 billion of bank financing lined up and each side taking an equal stake [1]. PayPal reports third-quarter results on October 27, the first numbers either side can argue with since the board said no [2]. The timing is not an accident. ## The price they came back with is the tell The buyers walked away in August rather than sweeten the offer, and PayPal's stock fell 12.7% that morning [2]. Returning with more money, after being refused once, means they want the one asset PayPal owns that money cannot rebuild quickly: a 430-million-account consumer network anchored by Venmo, paired with Stripe's merchant-side infrastructure, which processes around $1.9 trillion a year against PayPal's close to $1.8 trillion [1]. A combined company would face Block and Adyen with volume neither can match at checkout [1]. ## What makes the network worth the bid is AI shopping Checkout is moving. PayPal is now [the only native in-app checkout partner on Glance](https://theinference.org/article/paypal-s-checkout-is-inside-glance-an-ai-shopping-agent-on-60-million-devices-but-volume-waits-until-2028), InMobi's AI shopping app, and already handles checkout inside ChatGPT [2]. If AI agents do the buying, the agent needs somewhere trusted to hold the card number. That is the thing Stripe never built, and it is the link that turns a payments deal into a bet on agentic commerce. ## The core business has to justify any of it [Q2 revenue rose to $8.68 billion](https://www.tikr.com/blog/paypal-bets-on-ai-shopping-with-glance-after-its-53-billion-buyout-collapses) while transaction margin dollars, PayPal's profit after processing costs, grew just 1%, and operating margin fell to 16.4% [2]. [Lores](https://theinference.org/markets/people/enrique-lores) is betting [a cut of about 20% of the workforce](https://theinference.org/article/paypal-s-cut-list-names-the-engineers-behind-its-1-5bn-ai-bet), worth at least $1.5 billion in savings, closes that gap [1]. Wednesday's print tests it. *Chart: **PayPal revenue keeps climbing while operating margin falls to a two-year low** PayPal quarterly revenue in billions of dollars and operating margin as a percent of revenue, Q3 2024 through Q2 2026, showing revenue rising while margin falls to its lowest point in the period in Q2 2026.* *PayPal quarterly revenue (USD billions) and GAAP operating margin (percent of revenue), Q3 2024 to Q2 2026, from PayPal's SEC filings. [3]* If the deal signs, PayPal holders get the premium and the banks carry $50 billion of credit risk on a company trading at 10.3x forward earnings [1][2]. If it does not, the turnaround has to work on its own. Either way, the consumer account base is the prize, and AI shopping is the battlefield that repriced it. [BofA](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/bank-of-america)'s [sell rating with a $53 target, reported earlier this month](https://startupfortune.com/stripe-and-advent-return-to-the-table-with-a-richer-bid-for-paypal/), now sits below even the rejected bid; the renewed talks are what has changed since [1]. ## Takeaway Stripe and Advent's renewed bid above the rejected $60.50 a share says the value in PayPal is its 430-million-account consumer network, the asset AI shopping is about to make decisive; Wednesday's earnings are the first test of whether the core business can argue back. ## Sources 1. [Startup Fortune, Stripe and Advent Return to the Table With a Richer Bid for PayPal, 26 October 2026 (citing The Wall Street Journal)](https://startupfortune.com/stripe-and-advent-return-to-the-table-with-a-richer-bid-for-paypal/) 2. [TIKR, PayPal Bets on AI Shopping With Glance After Its $53 Billion Buyout Collapses, 21 October 2026](https://www.tikr.com/blog/paypal-bets-on-ai-shopping-with-glance-after-its-53-billion-buyout-collapses) 3. [PayPal, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 26 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001633917) --- Stripe and Advent return for PayPal above $60.50 as AI shopping makes the account base the prize — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/stripe-and-advent-return-for-paypal-above-60-50-as-ai-shopping-makes-the-account-base-the-prize