PayPal Agrees to Acquire iZettle for $2.2 billion – the biggest ever transaction in the payments industry

PayPal has reached an agreement to acquire Stockholm-based iZettle in an all-cash deal valued at $2.2 billion, it’s biggest ever transaction in a dynamic and fluctuating payments environment. The timing of the agreement comes just weeks after iZettle announced plans to float on Nasdaq Stockholm in a bid to raise $227 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion.

Jacob de Geer, CEO and co-founder at iZettle explains the change in direction: „Late in the IPO process, PayPal got in touch and showed a serious interest in iZettle. The relationship with PayPal is not a new one, in fact we’ve talked about different ways of working together for years. But this time it very quickly turned into a detailed discussion on how we could benefit from joining forces. And we both realised the great opportunity in doing just that.”

The combination brings together iZettle’s in-store experience, digital marketing strength and mobile point-of-sale technology with PayPal’s global scale, brand reputation and online and mobile payments expertise.

For PayPal, the deal delivers a ready-made competitor to Square with a franchise across 12 markets in Europe and Latin America and a small merchant base of a half-a-million clients.

„This is the largest acquisition in our company’s history and significantly expands our in-store presence around the world, strengthening our platform to help millions of small businesses around the world grow and thrive in an omnichannel retail environment.”, says Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal.

Based in Stockholm, iZettle was founded in 2010 by Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson with a mission to help small businesses “succeed in a world of giants” by leveling the playing field against bigger retailers. iZettle revolutionized mobile payments with the world’s first mini chip card reader and software for mobile devices. Today, the company’s commerce solutions empower nearly half a million merchants across 12 countries and two continents to get paid, sell smarter and grow their businesses.

Jacob and his team bring best-in-class capabilities and talent that will expand our tremendous market opportunity. Upon closing, we will gain in-store capabilities in 11 markets, near-term in-store expansion opportunities into other existing PayPal markets, and the acceleration of omnichannel commerce solutions in Australia, U.K. and U.S.