According to insiders, the Internet payment service PayPal is planning a billion-dollar takeover of the Pinterest online pin board.

PayPal wants to get the purchase wrapped up by the beginning of November, said people familiar with the processes on Wednesday.

PayPal offered $ 70 per Pinterest share.

With the resulting purchase price totaling 45 billion dollars, the deal would be the largest takeover by a social media group to date.

Initially, the Bloomberg agency reported a volume of $ 39 billion that resulted from the exclusion of a share class.

For the time being, there was no comment from PayPal and Pinterest.

More expensive than LinkedIn?

Both companies are considered winners of the corona pandemic.

In times of exit and contact restrictions, more people were shopping online and paying more often via PayPal.

In lockdown, there were more users on Pinterest who were inspired, among other things, for handicraft or home improvement projects.

With the purchase of Pinterest, PayPal could profit from the fact that more and more Internet users are buying goods that they have seen on social media sites and that have been recommended by “influencers”.

According to the insiders, a conclusion of the deal is not yet certain.

However, PayPal hope to be able to bring the negotiations to an end by the time the quarterly figures are presented on November 8th.

A $ 45 billion acquisition would dwarf Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn.

The technology giant paid a good $ 26 billion for the contact platform five years ago.

The PayPal-Pinterest wedding could also give the go-ahead for further mergers of financial technology companies and social media.

The $ 70 bid per share would be a 26 percent markup on Pinterest's closing price on Tuesday.

After the plans became known, Pinterest papers shot up almost 13 percent to $ 62.68 on Wednesday.

PayPal shares fell just under five percent to $ 258.36.