PayPal says it's currently not pursuing Pinterest deal

[HONG KONG] PayPal Holdings Inc said it isn't pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest Inc, ending days of speculation over a potential US$45 billion deal.

San Jose, California-based PayPal had approached Pinterest about a potential deal, Bloomberg News reported last week. The companies discussed a potential price of around US$70 a share, sources said.

The price would have valued Pinterest, an image-sharing, visual search and scrap-booking platform, at about US$45 billion.

PayPal said in a one-sentence statement on Monday: "In response to market rumours regarding a potential acquisition of Pinterest by PayPal, PayPal stated that it is not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time."

PayPal shares rose as much as 6 per cent in US pre-market trading, while Pinterest dropped as much as 10 per cent.

An acquisition of Pinterest would have boosted PayPal's ambitions to become the next global super app. The company was founded in 1998 by a group that included Peter Thiel and Elon Musk to help consumers pay for things online at a time when many were still relying on cheques or cash to conduct e-commerce.

Andrew Jeffrey, an analyst with Truist Securities said: "We are perplexed by this potential transaction, and see little or no strategic rationale. We see such a move as an act of near desperation."

A deal to buy Pinterest would have given the payments firm, which last year paid US$4 billion for couponing and price-comparison app Honey Science, more data about the products consumers are buying and the ability to potentially advertise or offer discounts based on that data.

BLOOMBERG