PayPal’s New Chief Sets Out a Standalone Turnaround Plan After Buyout Talks Collapse
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Sagar Savla, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized)
Image: PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose, California. Photo by Sagar Savla, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized).
PayPal chief executive Enrique Lores has set out plans to fix the payments company on its own, after reported acquisition talks with rival Stripe and private equity firm Advent International broke down. According to PYMNTS, the two suitors made an offer this summer of roughly $60.50 a share — a deal that would have valued PayPal at more than $50 billion — but the parties could not agree on price.
Speaking at an investor conference in mid-September, Lores said: “What we have done is to first look at the strategy that we have, have confidence in the strategy that we have, and use this as a benchmark to compare any other alternatives,” as reported by PYMNTS. PayPal shares were trading around $53 at the time, down from a peak above $62 earlier this year.
This is a different story from PayPal’s own share-price moves in February 2026, when analysts speculated PayPal itself could be a takeover target; this latest reporting concerns the company’s plan after a specific, since-abandoned buyout approach.
A Simpler Structure
PayPal reorganised into three business units in April 2026: Branded Checkout, Payment Services & Crypto, and Venmo & Consumer Financial Services. Lores told Payments Dive the change was meant “to increase and clarify accountability, and to accelerate decision-making.”
Lores said PayPal needed to be “fixed,” telling Payments Dive: “We have been relying on branded checkout as the source of profit for the company — we are rebalancing that, and we see a big opportunity across the full portfolio in financial services.”
Cost Cuts and Venmo’s Expansion
PayPal is targeting $1.5 billion in annual run-rate cost savings over the next few years, Lores told Payments Dive. A central plank of the plan is turning Venmo from a peer-to-peer payments app into a broader money-management product with budgeting and investing features, alongside expanded crypto trading and PYUSD stablecoin functionality.
Acquisitions Not Ruled Out
Lores has not ruled out PayPal making its own acquisitions. “If we do M&A, it will be totally related to the growth strategy that we have defined,” he said, according to PYMNTS, adding that the company expected to start evaluating targets “at some point in the next quarter.”
Why It Matters
PayPal’s decision to press ahead independently, rather than sell to a rival, puts the pressure back on Lores to show the reorganisation and cost cuts can revive growth against competition from Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Stripe itself. His pay package reportedly includes a bonus of up to $25 million if PayPal’s stock averages above $68 for 60 days, and more than $60 million if it reaches $125 — an explicit financial stake in the turnaround succeeding.
