PayPal, a U.S based electronic payment company just acquired a small Swedish business commerce startup iZettle for $2.2 billion, the largest acquisition PayPal has ever made.
iZettle was launched back in 2010 by Jacob de Geer and Magnus Nilsson in Stockholm. The startup was created with the aim of helping small businesses, and so far, it has reached out and empowered about half a million of merchants across 11 countries.
Dan Schulman, PayPal President, and CEO commented on the acquisition saying: “We signed an agreement to acquire iZettle, the leading small business commerce platform in Europe and Latin America. This is the largest acquisition in our company’s history and significantly expand our in-store presence around the world, strengthening our platform to help millions of small businesses around the world grow and thrive in an omnichannel retail environment.”
The announcement of the acquisition was made weeks after iZettle revealed its plan for an initial public offering (IPO) in the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018.
Even after the closing of the deal, the founder of iZettle Jacob de Geer will still remain to lead the startup which will be operating under PayPal’s merchant services offering, and report to PayPal’s Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready.
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