PayPal denies Pinterest acquisition reports

U.S. payments giant PayPal is not pursuing an acquisition of social media company Pinterest, the digital payments giant announced in a statement Monday, putting a stop to days of speculation over what could have been one of the internet industry’s largest deals in years. PayPal said it is not pursuing a deal to acquire Pinterest “at this time,” according to a single-sentence statement Monday.

The denial is a direct response to “market rumors” the payment giant was in talks to acquire Pinterest, PayPal said. The deal, first reported by Bloomberg last week, would have reportedly valued Pinterest at around $45 billion and been PayPal’s biggest acquisition since it bought coupon company Honey for $4 billion in 2019. 

Shares of Pinterest soared on the back of the report. The company’s stock was halted twice, before closing up more than 12%. PayPal, meanwhile, closed down nearly 5%. PayPal had discussed acquiring the company for a potential price of around $70 a share, which would value Pinterest at about $39 billion, according to Bloomberg. Pinterest, which allows users to create and share image boards, went public in April 2019, where it was valued at just more than $10 billion. Its market cap today sits at around $37 billion.

A deal between Pinterest and PayPal would take payments giant one step closer to becoming a super app in the vein of China’s WeChat, a one-stop-shop seamlessly integrating social media and commerce. At the moment, super apps have only gained significant traction in China, where they have become a ubiquitous (and almost required) part of everyday life.

Tech giants are racing to build the next super app. PayPal—alongside other platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter—has made its ambitions here clear, and the Pinterest rumors follow a string of acquisitions to expand its offerings in cryptocurrencies, messaging, and finance.