Stripe wants to buy all or some of PayPal: report

Stripe is considering a potential acquisition of all or part of PayPal, according to a recent report by Bloomberg, though discussions are said to be at an early stage and may not lead to a transaction.

The report emerged on the same day Stripe published its annual letter to investors, in which it disclosed a new tender offer valuing the company at $159 billion. The valuation represents a 74 percent increase from the previous year. 

Investors participating in the share purchase include Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital, and the company said it would also repurchase some stock from employees.

Stripe, headquartered in Dublin, was co-founded by Patrick Collison, who has previously indicated that taking the company public is not a priority. PayPal, by contrast, is a publicly traded company with a market capitalisation of roughly $40 billion. Its portfolio includes the PayPal payments platform as well as services such as Venmo.

Shares in PayPal rose modestly following reports of Stripe’s interest.