PayPal sinks 12.7% as $53 billion buyout collapses
Updated on September 27, 2026. · Written by Svetoslav Grigorov
VERIFIED PayPal (PYPL) trades at $53.28, per StockAnalysis data checked on August 31, 2026 (source). Its market cap sits around $45.58 billion. Over the past 52 weeks the stock has traded between $38.46 and $79.22.
VERIFIED This week's slump follows a 12.7% drop on August 28, after the collapse of the takeover bid was confirmed, per Yahoo Finance.
CALCULATED At $53.28 and with the 52-week range cited above, PayPal sits 38.53% above its low ($38.46) and 32.74% below its high ($79.22), that is, at 36.36% of that range (0% = low, 100% = high): after the collapse, the stock is closer to its one-year low than to its high — Claromercado's own calculation, not a figure published by the source.
What's behind the drop
VERIFIED A consortium led by private-equity firm Advent International and payments processor Stripe had offered more than $50 billion for PayPal — $60.50 per share, roughly $53 billion in total value — and abandoned the pursuit, per Bloomberg. Had it closed, it would have ranked among the largest leveraged buyouts on record.
HYPOTHESIS Per Forbes, PayPal's board considered the offer too low and had not yet formally responded, suggesting talks broke down over valuation, per Forbes. This is the explanation circulating this week, not a fact independently verified by this site.
CALCULATED The $53.28 price sits 11.93% below the $60.50 per share the consortium was offering. Looked at the other way, the offer represented a 13.55% premium over the current price — Claromercado's own calculation, not a figure published by the source.
How the business stands after the collapse
VERIFIED With no buyer in sight, the market has refocused on PayPal's own business: the company raised its full-year earnings-per-share guidance to $5.38 after a second-quarter 2026 EPS of $1.38, and the stock trades around 10 times earnings, a low multiple for a profitable fintech, according to Ad-Hoc News.
CALCULATED Dividing the $53.28 price by the $5.38 EPS guidance gives a P/E of 9.90 times, consistent with the "around 10 times" the source cites (note: this is a P/E on guided full-year earnings, not on trailing twelve-month earnings). By the same math, the $60.50 offer equaled 11.25 times that guided EPS — Claromercado's own calculation, not a figure published by the source.
What to watch next
VERIFIED PayPal's next quarterly earnings report is scheduled for October 27, 2026, according to MarketBeat. Absent a new buyer or an announced share buyback program, that report will be the clearest test of whether the "standalone turnaround" story the market is now pricing holds up against actual numbers.
What this does NOT mean
HYPOTHESIS Much of the stock's earlier rally reflected speculation around this deal; the deal falling apart says nothing on its own about PayPal's underlying business, only about the price the market was willing to pay while an acquisition was on the table. It also does not rule out another buyer emerging, or PayPal itself buying back shares to support the price — those are just two possible scenarios, not a prediction.
Sources consulted on August 31, 2026: StockAnalysis: PayPal (PYPL), Bloomberg: Advent, Stripe Consortium Drops Pursuit of PayPal, Forbes: PayPal Plunges After Advent, Stripe Abandon Bid.
Educational notice: this article is analysis based on public data, may contain errors, and is not financial advice. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell. The decision and the risk are always the reader's own.