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Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is acquiring a financial technology company for $5.3 billion, the company announced on Monday.
What Happened
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The acquisition of Plaid, which provides the intermediary technology between banks and payment services like Transferwise, Acorns, and PayPal Holdings Inc.'s (NASDAQ:PYPL) Venmo, represents both Visa's "entry into new businesses" and "complementary enhancements to existing businesses," the company said in a statement.
"This acquisition is the natural evolution of Visa's 60-year journey from safely and securely connecting buyers and sellers to connecting consumers with digital financial services," Visa's CEO Al Kelly said.
The CEO of PayPal Dan Schulman also said that the combination of the two companies would provide their company with "exciting opportunities" to enhance their products, as Paypal has "strong relationships with both Visa and Plaid."
Why It Matters
The acquisition values Plaid exactly two times higher than the $2.65 billion it was valued at after its December 2018 funding round, where it raised $250 million.
Visa was one of the companies that participated in the funding round, along with competitor Mastercard Inc. (NYSE:MA), and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS), as reported by TechCrunch.
According to the publication, it is no coincidence that Visa has paid that amount to acquire the company.
"No one pays twice a multi-billion-dollar valuation for a firm unless they want to keep it away from their core business, or a key competitor. Or perhaps both, in the case of Plaid," TechCrunch noted.
Price Action
Visa's shares closed 0.83% higher at $195.33 on Monday.
Crypto Whales Are Loading Up — Are You?
New research shows the biggest crypto buyers are back. And this time? They could hold for the possibility that Bitcoin will surpass $100,000 in 2024. You don’t want to miss the next massive crypto bull run like we saw in 2020 and 2021. To know exactly what’s going on and what to buy… Get Access To Benzinga’s Best Crypto Research and Investments For Only $1.