PayPal unveiled its plans to buy money-transfer company Xoom on Wednesday, keeping up PayPal’s effort to touch just about every aspect of the digital payments world. PayPal said that it is buying international money-sending service Xoom in a deal valued at $890 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the final quarter of this year.
Xoom is an online international money transfer service which offer a secure, fast, and inexpensive way to send money from their website to friends and family in 37 countries around the world. PayPal will pay $25 per share of Xoom in what amounts to a premium of 32 percent over the stock’s average price over the past three months. PayPal touted Xoom as a leading service for letting people in the United States pay bills or send money to family members or friends in other countries using mobile phones, tablets or computers.
San Francisco-based Xoom will help PayPal speed its expansion into the 37 countries. Xoom already operates, especially the important markets of Mexico, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, China and Brazil. PayPal already offers international money transfers in 190 countries and regions, as well as peer-to-peer money-transfers and payments in the US through the service Venmo.
Xoom Chief Executive Officer John Kunze said that:
“Becoming part of PayPal represents an exciting new chapter for Xoom, which will help accelerate our time-to-market in unserved geographies and expand the ways we can innovate for customers,”
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PayPal earlier this year also purchased Paydiant, a startup that helps companies such as Subway and Capital One add loyalty features and mobile payment options into their mobile apps. In 2013, PayPal agreed to buy Braintree, which processes payments for companies including Airbnb and Uber, for $800 million.
The Xoom deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, with all off Xoom’s more than 300 employees joining San Jose-based PayPal.
Via: Japan Times