PayPal not pursuing deal with Pinterest
PayPal has denied pursuing the acquisition of social media platform Pinterest in a deal reportedly worth $45 billion.
It was first reported last week by Bloomberg that the payment firm had offered $70 per share, mostly in stock for the site. The acquisition would have been the biggest deal for a social media platform, surpassing Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion.
PayPal did not provide any extra details after denying the claim, after Pinterest’s shares boomed 13 per cent to $63.31 following the news of the discussions with the payment provider, giving Pinterest a market capitalisation of more than $40 billion.
Since the initial report, PayPal shares have fallen around 11.5 per cent after talks were reported, however Pinterest’s have risen by approximately 4.5 per cent.
The move was initially cited as part of PayPal’s aspirations to build a “super-app” similar to that of WeChat in China after completing the purchase of BNPL (buy now, pay later) firm Paidy, payment company Zettle and price comparison site Honey.
