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PayPal explores purchase of Pinterest
October 21, 2021
PayPal Holdings Inc. is exploring an acquisition of social media organization Pinterest Inc., individuals with knowledge of the matter said.
San Jose, California-based PayPal has recently approached Pinterest about a potential deal, individuals said, asking not to be identified because of the talks are private. The organizations have talked about a likely cost of around $70 an offer, individuals said.
That would value Pinterest’s public Class A stock at generally $39 billion, implying a valuation of $45 billion for the whole organization when its untraded Class B shares are taken into account. A deal at that level would address about a 26% premium to Pinterest’s Tuesday closing price of $55.58.
Pinterest shares surged in New York trading Wednesday, briefly setting off a trading halt. They hopped as much as 19%, hitting a high of $66 each. Portions of PayPal were down 3.3% at 11:47 a.m. in New York, giving the organization with a market capitalization of about $309 billion.
A boom in online shopping has helped PayPal stock more than double since the beginning of last year, providing the organization with a market capitalization of almost $320 billion. Those gains give it a strong currency it could use for acquisitions.