PayPal says it’s not pursuing Pinterest acquisition

PayPal Holdings Inc. on Sunday said it will not pursue an acquisition of the social media company Pinterest, ending talks of what had been reported as a potential $45 billion deal.

PayPal stated that “it is not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time” in a statement. 

Bloomberg News first reported last week that the San Jose, Calif.-based company approached Pinterest about a potential acquisition.

Sources told Bloomberg that both companies had discussed a potential acquisition of around $70 a share, which would’ve valued Pinterest at about $45 billion. 

The acquisition of Pinterest would have boosted PayPal’s goals to become the next global super app, according to Bloomberg News. 

PayPal was founded in 1998 by a group that included Peter Theil and Tesla founder Elon Musk to help consumers pay for things online when many were still using paper checks or cash to conduct e-commerce. 

This comes as Pinterest, a visual search and scrapbooking platform, shares jumped by 30 percent on Wednesday after the reported talks between the two companies. 

The proposed deal with Pinterest would’ve added more data about the products consumers are buying and the ability to offer discounts based on that data, Bloomberg News noted.