PayPal Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy Pinterest in $45 Billion Deal
The Silicon Valley digital payments giant has offered to buy Pinterest, the digital pinboard company that enables e-commerce within its app, in a deal valued at about $45 billion, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. PayPal has offered around $70 a share for Pinterest, the people said, a 25 percent increase from Pinterest’s opening share price on Wednesday.
If completed, the deal would be the largest in the consumer internet industry over the past decade, topping Microsoft’s $26 billion purchase of LinkedIn in 2016 and Salesforce’s $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack last year, according to the data service firm Dealogic. It would also be among the largest deals for PayPal, which was spun off from eBay in 2015 and has snapped up payments companies globally.
Buying Pinterest would underline PayPal’s interest in moving further into e-commerce. In 2019, PayPal agreed to pay $4 billion for the coupon payment platform Honey, which shows people discounts while they shop online. Through Pinterest’s app, people can save images to digital pinboards and buy goods directly through what are known as “buyable pins.”
