Great Hill Capital Chairman Thomas Hayes suggested Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) should acquire PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PYPL) for $90 billion, stating the deal could save Meta “5-10 years” in building a “WeChat super-app” ahead of Elon Musk‘s Xmoney.
Strategic Advantage Over Xmoney
Writing as a PayPal shareholder, Hayes posted his acquisition thesis following a new payment partnership between the two technology companies.
Hayes argued that Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg could “beat him to the punch” against Musk, who is currently trying to build Xmoney from the ground up. A $90 billion acquisition price—representing approximately a 7% free cash flow yield—would be “highly accretive immediately” whether structured as a cash, stock, or combination deal.
Hayes added that $90 billion is “a price shareholders would accept,” noting a partial stock transaction allows PayPal investors to “participate in additional upside” in what he termed a “win-win” deal.
Data Monetization and Ad Revenue
While Meta dominates targeted advertising, Hayes stated that PayPal holds the superior dataset on consumer purchases and intent. Drawing comparisons to Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which built a $68 billion ad business with a 70% margin based on purchase history data, Hayes projected that PayPal’s dataset, paired with Meta, could be worth at least “half as much as Amazon’s ad business.”
Under this valuation framework, he estimated the payback period on a $90 billion purchase price would take three to four years.
AI Partnership Background and Market Reaction
The buyout proposal follows PayPal’s announcement of a partnership with Meta to enable customers to shop and check out using Muse, Meta’s personal AI agent, across PayPal’s global merchant base.
The arrangement expands an existing relationship through Meta Pay, where users link accounts via Meta’s Accounts Center and set default payment methods such as PayPal Balance or PayPal Credit.
How Has PYPL Performed in 2026?
Price Action: At the last check, the PYPL stock was trading 1.15% higher in premarket on Wednesday. It was down 21.85% over the last year, 9.40% year-to-date, and 14.07% over the last month. The stock closed 0.51% higher at $52.89 on Tuesday.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that PYPL maintains a weak price trend in the short and long terms but a strong trend in the medium term, with a poor growth score.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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