SA国际传媒

To help customers get a discount, doled out $4 billion for its latest acquisition:

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The Los Angeles startup, founded in 2012 by Ryan Hudson and George Ruan, makes technology that helps users discover rewards and deals while shopping. In light of this acquisition, Honey is set to adopt PayPal and Venmo鈥檚 275 million active consumer accounts. Additionally, Honey will tap into PayPal鈥檚 24 million merchant accounts, .

Think of Honey as an add-on extension to user browsers. After the deal closes, Honey will remain in its Los Angeles headquarters and operate under its own brand.

There鈥檚 no doubt that a $4 billion deal is a big one, for both Honey and the overall Los Angeles ecosystem. Per SA国际传媒 data, this is the fifth biggest acquisition deal – and the biggest tech acquisition deal – in Los Angeles history.

鈥淗oney is amongst the most transformative acquisitions in PayPal’s history,鈥� said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal, in a statement. Looking a bit deeper into Schulman鈥檚 statement, let鈥檚 look at the previous acquisitions by one of the world鈥檚 largest online payments systems, owned by eBay. In other words, let鈥檚 fact check him.

Dipping Into The Past

PayPal has acquired over 20 known companies to date, .

Price-wise, based on SA国际传媒 data, Honey is Paypal鈥檚 biggest deal yet, thanks to a $4 billion price tag. In second place is PayPal鈥檚 acquisition of , a payments point-of-sales company, for $2.2 billion in 2018.

Now, is Honey 鈥榯ransformative鈥� beyond a big dollar amount? The startup is PayPal鈥檚 second acquisition of 2019, while in 2018 the payments company scooped up four other companies. It signals a slight slowdown from the payment powerhouse.

In its acquisition history, PayPal has scooped up companies that touch all parts of a singular transaction. For example, it put cash into companies that help with payment processing, like its acquisition of , which provides third party payment services for governments and corporations, or , which has a set of tools to help online businesses process payments. It has also scooped up companies that help its users transfer money easier, like . And .

Additionally, it has engaged in data and security, like its buy of , to prevent fraud and abuse in real time, or its acquisition of , which is a predictive cybersecurity company. Or , which is self explanatory.

So when examining PayPal鈥檚 known acquisitions, Honey stands out as unique. It shows that the payment giant is betting big on becoming more involved in its users lives, beyond just the point-of-purchase moment, but throughout the shopping journey as well.聽 And with every startup and tech company becoming a bank, that might not be a bad idea after all.

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