PayPal still appears to be open Stripe’s $53.4 billion takeover bidjust not at the price offered by the latter.
At the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call on Tuesday, PayPal CEO Enrique Lores didn’t completely dismiss the idea of a deal, saying the company would consider a way to create “superior value” for shareholders.
While that’s not the same as saying “PayPal isn’t for sale,” it still shows that the company doesn’t believe in Stripe and Advent International. current bid of $60.50 per share especially after the company rates it right informed reported better-than-expected profits and revenue and said it was making progress on its turnaround strategy.
Analysis of financial services firm Cantor valuable PayPal close to $70 a share. The company’s shares are currently trading at around $58.
PayPal reported adjusted earnings of $1.38 per share, beating expectations of $1.28 per share. Revenue increased 5% year-over-year to $8.68 billion estimates $8.47 billion. And $1.8 billion in adjusted free cash flow allows the company to continue investing in its products and strategy.
That doesn’t mean PayPal is walking away from its takeover bid.
While Lores did not directly address Stripe’s offer, saying PayPal does not comment on potential mergers or market speculation, he acknowledged that a suitable M&A offer would not be rejected outright.
“If we see leverage or a path that we believe will create superior value for our shareholders than executing our current strategy, we would certainly consider them carefully,” he told investors on Tuesday.
PayPal is still busy its AI-centric twistincluding a restructuring exercise aligning its operations into three segments: payment solutions and PayPal; consumer financial services (and Venmo); and payment services and crypto. The company said it will save additional costs as it uses artificial intelligence in areas such as coding, customer service, support operations and risk management.
Lores offered an update on that strategy on Tuesday, saying the company is “making good progress” on its plan to deliver at least $1.5 billion in total operating savings over the next two to three years. He also said PayPal is on track to eliminate three organizational layers within the company and continues to modernize its technology. This last bit includes moving from the data center to the cloud, building a more modular and scalable architecture, and reducing platform complexity.
“We believe the execution of the transformation strategy I outlined will create significant value for shareholders. That remains our focus,” Lores said. “Although there is still significant work ahead. I have strong confidence in our direction and our ability to execute.”
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