Stripe and buyout firm Advent are no longer pursuing their acquisition of PayPal, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, if completed, could have been one of the largest leveraged buyouts ever at well over $50 billion. In July, when PayPal traded at historic lows and was valued at $40 billion, Stripe and Advent reportedly made an offer worth around $53 billion.

PayPal reportedly rejected the bid, and the Stripe group was preparing a higher offer. PayPal's stock had previously reached as high as $320 billion during the COVID pandemic. Stripe and Advent likely saw PayPal's recent struggles as an opportunity to acquire it at a discount.

However, PayPal's latest quarterly results exceeded most estimates, helping boost its stock price by 40 percent, which may have made a leveraged takeover less feasible. PayPal's new CEO Enrique Lores, appointed in March, has been restructuring the company into three units focused on checkout, Venmo, and payment/crypto. A merger between Stripe and PayPal could have reduced Stripe's reliance on Visa and MasterCard while incorporating PayPal's Venmo checkout system and crypto features.

Stripe and Advent could still opt to make a bid for PayPal in the future, Bloomberg reported.