PayPal Holdings Inc.

, the

digital payments pioneer

, is attracting

takeover interest

from potential buyers after a

stock slide wiped out

almost half of its value, according to people familiar with the matter. The shares jumped as much as 9.7 per cent on the news.

The San Jose, California-based company has fielded meetings with banks amid unsolicited interest from suitors, the people said. At least one large rival is looking at the whole company, while some other suitors are only interested in certain PayPal assets, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

Buyer interest in PayPal is still at a preliminary stage and may not lead to a transaction, the people cautioned. A representative for PayPal declined to comment.

Founded in the late 1990s, PayPal was an early mover in the world of digital payments. But the company now finds itself in a rut with its customers increasingly turning to alternative ways to pay for things.

PayPal’s shares, which had fallen around 46 per cent over the past year, were up 6.6 per cent to US$44.38 at 1:36 p.m. Monday in New York trading, giving the company a market value of about US$40.9 billion.

Current board chair Enrique Lores is due to take up the role as president and chief executive of PayPal on March 1. He will have to address the company’s failure to modernize its payments technologies and the loss of market share to rivals such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Former CEO Alex Chriss was ousted this month after his turnaround plan fell short. The company’s fourth-quarter profit and revenue missed analysts’ estimates, according to results for the period that also showed a continued slowdown in payment volume.

Analysts from Mizuho Securities said PayPal is “deeply undervalued given that it is one of four globally recognized payment networks.” The company has almost US$2 trillion in annual transaction volume and has the “most prominent United States P2P network” in Venmo, the firm wrote in a note.

KBW analysts said in a note to clients that PayPal’s network assets are scarce and strategically valuable, noting the company could be particularly important for firms “trying to play a bigger role in

agentic commerce

.”

The interest in PayPal comes as shares in delivery, payments and software companies slid Monday after Citrini Research published a report laying out the risks that

artificial intelligence

could pose to various segments of the global economy.

Bloomberg.com

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