New York, Feb 25, 2026, 18:53 EST — After-hours
- PayPal ends regular trade higher; after-hours ticks lower
- Stripe interest talk keeps focus on a potential deal or breakup
- New PayPal-Rainforest tie-up adds a second catalyst as CEO handover nears
PayPal Holdings (PYPL) shares on Nasdaq closed up 0.6% at $47.32 on Wednesday and slipped about 0.3% in after-hours trading. The S&P 500 ended higher. (MarketWatch)
The chatter matters because it lands in the middle of a leadership reset and a broader fight for payments traffic. Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that privately held Stripe is weighing an acquisition of PayPal or parts of it; PayPal shares closed nearly 7% higher after the report. Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a tender offer, while PayPal’s market value sits above $40 billion, according to LSEG data; both companies declined to comment and the report could not be independently verified. (Reuters)
A day earlier, Bloomberg said PayPal had been fielding unsolicited approaches and holding meetings with banks, with at least one large rival looking at the whole company and other suitors eyeing certain assets. PayPal shares have lost about 85% since their mid-2021 peak, a slide that has drawn bargain hunters — and potential buyers. (Reuters)
PayPal also tried to steer the story on Wednesday with a product push. The company said it is teaming up with embedded payments provider Rainforest so vertical software platforms can offer PayPal, Venmo and PayPal Pay Later, its buy-now-pay-later option, alongside other payment methods. “Vertical software is a strategic growth area for PayPal as more commerce moves directly into software,” said Taira Hall, senior vice president and head of SMB commercial, while Rainforest CEO Joshua Silver said the tie-up gives platforms “instant access to PayPal without extra onboarding steps.” (PayPal Newsroom)
Embedded payments is the plumbing approach: payments sit inside business software, not as a separate add-on. For PayPal, deals like this can broaden distribution through software firms that already run invoicing and workflows for merchants.
Wall Street remains split on whether any takeover talk turns into something real. Mizuho has an Outperform rating and a $60 price target, while Truist reiterates a Sell rating with a $39 target, Barron’s reported, with some analysts arguing pieces like Venmo could be more realistic than an outright buyout. (Barron’s)
PayPal’s board ousted CEO Alex Chriss on Feb. 3 and issued a dim 2026 profit outlook, sending shares down 19% at the time. The company pointed to pressure in retail spending and said CFO Jamie Miller would serve as interim CEO until Enrique Lores takes over on March 1. (Reuters)
Even if Stripe’s interest is real, a full bid would be complicated. Stripe is private, and a purchase of PayPal would raise financing questions and likely invite a hard look from regulators given overlap in merchant payments.
The risk for bulls is that nothing formal follows. If deal chatter fades and PayPal offers no sign of a review, the stock can snap back to trading on fundamentals — execution, competition, and whether consumer spending holds up.
Traders head into Thursday looking for any official word on strategic options as Lores approaches his March 1 start date, and for fresh talking points when PayPal presents at Wolfe Fintech Forum on March 10. The next scheduled catalyst after that is PayPal’s first-quarter earnings call on May 5. (SEC)
