Early reports said that the deal was valued at $39 billion, adding that PayPal could finance the acquisition via stocks. As per one of the sources cited by Reuters (via) PayPal is offering close to $70 per share. PayPal buying Pinterest may not make a great deal of sense to everyone. However, this signals the payments giant’s keen interest to establish itself in the social media business.
PayPal wants to negotiate a deal prior to its quarterly earnings call on November 8
If the reports are true, this would be the largest acquisition of a social media company, pipping Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion. PayPal is reportedly keen on negotiating a deal before its quarterly earnings call on November 8. As Engadget points out, PayPal has made several big investments over the past 18 months. It recently entered the cryptocurrency trading business while also investing heavily in the buy-now-pay-later industry, spending close to $2.7 billion. While these investments technically come under the finance business, entering the social media industry will be new for PayPal. Pinterest is also one of the least controversial apps out there as it has mostly evaded the perils of misinformation and hate speech on its platform. Meanwhile, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter have all struggled with these issues. However, this could be down to the nature of the app as Pinterest only caters to designers or artists. But a recent update to the Pinterest app suggests that the company wants to expand its userbase. This week, Pinterest unveiled new features aimed at making it more competitive. The app received a new “Watch” tab which appears to be inspired by TikTok and Instagram Reels. In the wake of falling active users, Pinterest said it was due to people no longer staying indoors as the economy reopens. However, the recent app update indicates that Pinterest is struggling to keep users on board at a time when TikTok’s numbers are on the rise.
