PayPal looks ripe to be Jack Ma's next target
As eBay spins off its online payments subsidiary PayPal, Alibaba chairman Jack Ma Yun is presented with an opportunity for just the kind of blockbuster deal that China's richest man is fond of doing.
It could be a match made in e-commerce heaven: Alipay and PayPal.
As eBay spins off its online payments subsidiary PayPal, Alibaba chairman Jack Ma Yun is presented with an opportunity for just the kind of blockbuster deal that China's richest man is fond of doing.
Alipay, which handles payment processing for Ma's Alibaba, is the leading online payments service on the mainland while PayPal, based in California's Silicon Valley, is the world's biggest online payments provider, with operations in more than 200 countries.
The decision to break up eBay follows billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn's calls to consolidate the payments industry "either through acquisitions made by PayPal or a merger between PayPal and another strong player in the industry". As Alibaba emerges as a global e-commerce titan following its record-making initial pubic offering, there has been increasing speculation of a likely tie-up between Alipay and PayPal.
A combined Alipay and PayPal operation would be a stronger player to fend off competition from peers like Amazon, Google and Tencent. By acquiring PayPal, Alipay would also help Alibaba expand its e-commerce activities beyond China.
Hangzhou-based Alipay provides payment processing and escrow services to Alibaba's various business-to-business, consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer e-commerce operations.
PayPal processes 9.3 million payment transactions each day around the world.