U.S. fintech giant PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) says that it is not currently in talks to buy social media platform Pinterest (NYSE:PINS).
Responding to what it called "market rumors," the financial technology company said on its website that it is "not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time."
Shares of PayPal were up over 6% in pre-market trading on the latest news while shares of Pinterest were down more than 10%.
Shares of Pinterest had soared last week on media reports that PayPal planned to pay $70 a share to acquire the social media platform, which would have valued Pinterest at about $39 billion U.S.
Pinterest, which allows users to create and share image boards, went public in April 2019, where it was valued at more than $10 billion U.S. Its market cap today sits at around $37 billion U.S.
PayPal has largely benefited from the boom in online shopping since the start of the pandemic. A potential acquisition of Pinterest could push the company into social commerce, a growing space that other technology giants are already working on.
Social commerce lets companies track clicks and purchases within their respective apps, so they can prove the effectiveness of ads to advertisers. It also could allow the companies to receive a cut of each transaction.
Tech Insider
