Paypal To Acquire Japan's Paidy In $2.75B Deal

PayPal Holdings Inc. said it will acquire the Japanese upstart Paidy Inc. for 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) as it seeks to deepen a push into buy-now-pay-later products.

Photo Insert: While Japan is the world's third-largest online shopping market, statistics reveal that paper is still the preferred mode of payment.

The acquisition will be “minimally dilutive” to adjusted earnings per share in 2022, PayPal said Tuesday in a statement. The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, will be paid for principally with cash, PayPal said, Jennifer Surane reported for Bloomberg.

Japan is home to the world’s third-largest market for online shopping but it is also one of the few developed markets where paper currency is still king. Nearly three-quarters of all purchases in the country are still paid for in cash, PayPal said.

Paidy, then, is unusual among the world’s buy-now-pay-later providers because it allows Japanese consumers to purchase items online and pay them off each month in person at local convenience stores. The firm, founded in 2010, has 4.3 million active accounts.

“There is no better home for Paidy to continue to grow and innovate than PayPal, which has been removing friction from online shopping for more than 20 years,” said Russell Cummer, founder and executive chairman of Paidy.

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