Breaking: PayPal Is “In Talks to Sell Itself” After Rejecting Stripe’s Initial $60.50 Bid in July

PayPal (PYPL) surged after reports of active sale talks with a Stripe and Advent International consortium, following a previously rejected $60.50-per-share bid.

Stripe, valued near $159 billion, would gain PayPal's 439 million active accounts and Braintree's merchant footprint, creating a combined $3 trillion payment platform.

CEO Enrique Lores confirmed the board will objectively evaluate every opportunity as Q2 revenue hit $8.68 billion with non-GAAP EPS beating consensus at $1.38.

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PayPal ( NASDAQ:PYPL ) shares jumped Friday after CNBC's MacKenzie Sigalos reported on-air that a Wall Street Journal story had recently been published detailing active sale discussions between PayPal and a consortium led by private fintech rival Stripe and private equity firm Advent International.

Sigalos framed PayPal's share price move as driven by deal speculation: "Those shares are popping on a Wall Street Journal story saying that the fintech firm is in talks to sell itself to a group that includes Stripe and then private equity firm Advent International. "

She reminded viewers of the backstory: " It was just a few weeks ago that the PayPal board weighed a bid by Stripe and Advent when they proposed paying $60.50 a share for PayPal, a price that the PayPal board viewed as insufficient at the time, according to some of the sources speaking to the Journal."

PayPal closed Friday's trading session at $61.66 , up 1.77% on the day, 4.38% on the week, and 11.06% over the past month. PayPal currently trades at just 11.1x next year's expected earnings and 9.1x expected FCF. The stock still trades below its 52-week high of $78.53, and shares remain down 77.38% over five years. Analysts have an average price target of $58.83, implying they think the company is just about fairly valued today with a market cap of $52.7 billion.