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Shares of electronic payments company PayPal jumped about 15% in pre-market trading after a joint acquisition offer from Stripe and Advent International at $60.50 per share, in a deal that values PayPal at more than $53 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The sources added that the offer, made earlier in July, is backed by committed bank financing of nearly $50 billion, and represents a premium of about 28% compared to PayPal's closing price on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

The sources said the offer came after an initial approach in early April, but PayPal has not yet responded to the proposal, while both Stripe and Advent seek to push talks forward in the coming weeks. The three companies declined to comment.

Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would jointly own PayPal with equal stakes, with no plans to break up the company, while emphasizing that there is no guarantee the deal will be completed.

PayPal, which was one of the first digital payment companies since its founding in the late 1990s, faces increasing pressure from competition from services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, along with slowing growth in its core business. The company's market value peaked at around $360 billion in 2021, before falling to about $36 billion earlier this year, with the stock losing more than 40% of its value over the past twelve months.

Since CEO Enrique Lores took office in March, the company has begun implementing a restructuring plan aimed at simplifying its operations and boosting growth, which included dividing operations into three units covering payment services, consumer financial services via Venmo, and payments and cryptocurrency business, along with management changes.

The potential deal comes amid increased merger and acquisition activity in the global payments sector, as companies seek to boost scale and expand into faster-growing areas such as cross-border payments and business-to-business payments, facing slowing growth in traditional payment processing activities.

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