May 18 (UPI) — PayPal confirmed Thursday it has reached a deal to purchase Swedish small-business payment platform iZettle for $2.2 billion.
The acquisition is the largest in PayPal’s history and will allow it to integrate iZettle’s technology, which provides mobile card readers and other digital payment products to small businesses, and compete with similar services such as Square.
“Small businesses increasingly want a full suite of capabilities across channels, a one-stop stop,” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said, according to Bloomberg. “IZettle was the perfect fit in many ways.”
The merger also allows PayPal to expand beyond the 200 countries where it operates to more countries in Europe and Latin America.
Earlier this month iZettle announced plans to list an initial public offering as part of a plan to raise $227 million on the Stockholm Nasdaq exchange.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018 and will have iZettle founder and CEO Jacob de Geer stay on to run the company along with others on iZettle’s executive team.
“Combining our assets and expertise with a global industry leader like PayPal allows us to deliver even more value to small businesses to help them succeed in a world of giants,” de Geer said. “The combination of iZettle and PayPal will provide tremendous benefits to our merchants who will have access to an even wider range of tools to help them get paid, sell smarter and grow.”
