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eBay announced in September 2013 that its PayPal business would acquire Braintree for approximately $800 million in cash, aiming to accelerate PayPal’s growth in mobile payments. Braintree brought payment tools built for mobile-first companies and in-app checkout, while its consumer app Venmo remained a separate service after the deal closed.
Why did PayPal buy Braintree?
The central goal was to strengthen PayPal’s mobile-payments business, especially for merchants whose services were delivered through mobile apps. PayPal later described Braintree as extending its reach to those retailers, with Venmo included in the acquisition. eBay’s September 2013 announcement framed the combination as a way to support developers and mobile-first commerce companies.
Braintree’s technology and merchant base gave PayPal a way to serve checkout experiences designed for phones and apps, rather than relying only on conventional online shopping flows. PayPal’s corporate history later described Braintree as part of the PayPal Commerce Platform, providing businesses with a full-stack payment service for online and in-app shopping.
What did Braintree bring to PayPal?
At the time of the announcement, eBay said Braintree powered mobile-first companies including Airbnb, OpenTable, TaskRabbit, and Uber. Its release described the following scale and capabilities as company figures from 2013—not current operating metrics:
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| 2013 capability or measure | What eBay/Braintree reported |
|---|---|
| Projected payment volume | Approximately $12 billion for 2013, with about one-third expected to come from mobile payments, according to the 2013 announcement. |
| Geographic and currency reach | Merchants in more than 40 countries and support for more than 130 currencies, as described in the 2013 announcement. |
| Single-click purchasing | More than 40 million consumers covered, according to the 2013 announcement. |
Those features addressed the practical needs of app-based commerce: integrating payments into a mobile experience, serving customers across borders, and reducing checkout friction. The acquisition announcement positioned Braintree as a developer-oriented payments provider for companies building new commerce services.
How much did PayPal pay for Braintree?
There are two commonly cited figures, reflecting different disclosures. eBay’s September 26, 2013 announcement said the deal involved approximately $800 million in cash. Its later 2013 annual filing reported approximately $713 million in total accounting consideration, primarily cash. The announcement figure was the transaction’s public headline; the filing gave the accounting consideration reported afterward.
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When did the acquisition close, and what happened to Venmo?
eBay announced the acquisition on September 26, 2013, and reported that it closed on December 19, 2013. Braintree continued as a separate PayPal service, and Venmo remained a separate app rather than being folded into PayPal’s consumer app. eBay’s closing announcement confirmed that arrangement.
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What changed after the acquisition?
PayPal’s later account of the deal linked Braintree to the broader PayPal Commerce Platform and its online and in-app payment services. In a September 2016 retrospective, PayPal reported that transactions on the Braintree platform had grown more than 25 times from Q2 2013 to Q2 2016. That is a company-reported comparison across those quarters, not a current growth rate.
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What the deal says about PayPal’s strategy
The acquisition was not simply about adding a recognizable consumer payment app. It gave PayPal a platform associated with mobile-first merchants, app checkout, and developer-led commerce, while keeping Braintree and Venmo distinct services within the broader business. The deal’s stated rationale and later reported transaction growth show how PayPal used Braintree to pursue mobile commerce; they do not establish that every Braintree feature or product remained unchanged over time.
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