00:00The next big potential deal we're watching centers on PayPal and Stripe.
00:04People familiar with the matter telling Bloomberg that there are preliminary talks.
00:08And by telling Bloomberg, I mean they're telling deals reporter Ryan Gould, who will help break that story, who joins
00:13us now from D.C.
00:15Ryan, what are you hearing?
00:17Yeah, Danny, it's a big week in the world of payments.
00:19That's for sure.
00:20I mean, how do we get to this point?
00:22The idea that PayPal is being eyed as a potential M&A target.
00:25I mean, it's kind of unheard of.
00:27I mean, this is a company that was founded in the late 1990s, was meant to be kind of the
00:32consolidator in payments.
00:33And, you know, putting it bluntly, it's kind of fallen on hard times.
00:36We're looking at a company that is now worth a fraction of what it was just even a year ago.
00:41It's lost almost half of its value in that time.
00:43And, yes, we are reporting that, you know, there are people looking at this as a potential takeout candidate, also
00:49as a breakup candidate.
00:51Stripe, we're reporting yesterday, has taken an early look, is preliminarily interested in parts or even all of PayPal.
00:58And I think this is just kind of the beginning of what could actually turn out to be a long
01:03saga for one of, you know, the world's most historic payments companies.
01:07Yeah, and just that in itself, Ryan, two payments companies.
01:11Is this the kind of deal that could have even been dreamed of in prior administrations?
01:16They're kind of direct competitors.
01:18That's a very good question, Danny, because I think this tells you a lot more about the state of the
01:22M&A market than it does, you know, maybe more so than PayPal itself.
01:25I think we're now in a world where deals that were maybe not thought possible in, you know, previous administrations
01:31or even previous eras of antitrust are now being thought of as, you know, definitely possible.
01:35And I think if this is anything to go by, we could be staring down the barrel of a potentially
01:39long and potentially also painful period for M&A for some of, you know, our biggest and most prized companies
01:46across the sort of technology ecosystem.
Comments