PayPal Still Trades Below the $60.50 Bid Its Board Turned Down. What That Spread Says About Deal Odds.

Stripe and Advent International made a $53 billion offer to buy PayPal, but it was rejected.

PayPal's new CEO has only been on the job for five full months, marking the early stages of its turnaround plan.

PayPal made encouraging volume and free cash flow progress in its most recent quarter.

On July 15, news broke that fintech company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International made a $53 billion offer to buy PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) . This proposal was $60.50 per share, and although PayPal's stock had its best month ever in July, rising more than 32%, it hasn't come close to touching the proposed per-share offer since December 2025.

As of market close on Aug. 4, PayPal's stock was $58.54, 3.24% below the bid its board of governors turned down. With the stock still floating below the offer a few weeks after it was proposed, what should investors read into it?

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The simple answer is that PayPal's board felt Stripe and Advent's offer was insufficient. The more nuanced answer is that right now it doesn't make sense to accept an offer that isn't "too good to be true" because the company is in the middle of a turnaround.

PayPal just appointed a new CEO, Enrique Lores, in February, hoping he could lead a turnaround. With only five full months in the role (he began March 1), selling the company now could seem like throwing in the towel.