PayPal dismisses Pinterest takeover reports as ‘market rumour’

The online payments provider said it is not looking to acquire the company 'at this time'

Trade

Image: Shutterstock via Dennis

26 October 2021

PayPal has denied reports that it is planning to acquire digital pinboard platform Pinterest.

Bloomberg was first to report the rumours on 20 October, having been told by people familiar with the matter that the two companies were involved in “late-stage talks”, with Pinterest reportedly being offered $70 per share, mostly in stock.

This would reportedly value the acquisition at $45 billion – the highest amount paid for a social media company to date, surpassing Microsoft’s $26.2 billion takeover of LinkedIn in June 2016.

However, in a statement published on Sunday, PayPal described the reports as “market rumours”, adding that it “is not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time”.

The announcement caused Pinterest shares to drop more than 12%, while PayPal’s bounced back by 6%, after having slumped by 8% following the news of the potential acquisition.

Pinterest wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The news comes weeks after another high-profile acquisition cancellation: on 1 October Zoom called off its $14.7 billion acquisition of cloud contact centre software provider Five9. The deal, which was expected to be the largest takeover for Zoom to date, was “mutually terminated” less than three months since it was announced due to Five9 failing to secure sufficient stockholder support.

The acquisition was voted down the deal in a shareholder meeting on Thursday, with the rejection being motivated by growth concerns as well as the dual-class shares: under the acquisition terms, Five9 shareholders would have received 0.5533 worth of Zoom shares for every Five9 share.

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