According to CNBC, PayPal is in “late-stage” talks of acquiring Pinterest. The news comes shortly after Bloomberg first reported about the acquisition. Bloomberg first reported that a deal worth $39 billion was being explored, but according to its updated news piece and CNBC, PayPal is valuing Pinterest at $70-a-share or $45 billion.

When Pinterest went public in 2019, its valuation was only $10 billion. But now, PayPal is valuing the company for $45 billion. If the deal goes through, this would mark PayPal’s biggest acquisition ever since it acquired the price-comparison app Honey for $4 billion last year.

But why acquire Pinterest? Well, for starters, the social commerce space is booming more than ever. For those of you who don’t know, social commerce is a modern-day tech thing in which tech firms add a buy option directly to the social media apps, much like Facebook has a “buy now” button all across Facebook and Instagram. In this day and age, when people look up to influencers to buy products, having a “buy now” button built directly in the app results in more money for the social media platform, at least from ad revenue if not a commission from the transaction. PayPal’s acquisition of Pinterest would enable them to get more involved in the e-commerce side of the social platform and collect ad revenue from it.

Moreover, it allows the firms to track the number of clicks and purchases made through the app. In addition to minting money from shopping options, PayPal is also under competitive pressure from the e-commerce platform Shopify who allegedly “pushed PayPal to explore the acquisition,” says CNBCBloomberg also says that not “analysts view the potential deal so favorably.” Andrew Jeffrey of the Truist Financial Corporation sees “such a move as an act of near desperation.”

Via: CNBC, Bloomberg