The acquisition gives soon-to-be-independent PayPal an entry to the international market. Where the company’s current business focuses on commercial transactions between consumers and businesses, Xoom has focused on money transfers between for family and friends. Xoom’s quarterly revenues have risen from $39.8 million in the June quarter of last year to $44.4 million in the March quarter of 2015. It may not be a huge business, but immigrants to the United States have been sending money home for decades at least, and that practice is unlikely to disappear.
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PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said:
Acquiring Xoom allows PayPal to offer a broader range of services to our global customer base, increase customer engagement and enter an important and growing adjacent marketplace. Xoom’s presence in 37 countries — in particular, Mexico, India, the Philippines, China and Brazil — will help us accelerate our expansion in these important markets.
Xoom was founded in 2001 and held its initial public offering (IPO) in February 2013. The IPO included 6.3 million shares that priced at $16 each, above the expected range of $13 to $15. On the first day of trading, the shares popped more than 40% to trade above $25. The stock price peaked at around $35 in the summer of 2013. Shares fell below $14 last November and posted a recent high of $24.99 on June 15.
Shares traded up about 24% in Thursday’s premarket, at $25.65 in a 52-week range of $13.14 to $26.94. The consensus price target on the stock was $22.73 from 11 brokers, as of Wednesday’s close.
According to the press announcement, Xoom will operate as a separate service within PayPal once the acquisition is completed, currently expected in the fourth quarter of this year. PayPal also noted that it intends to fund the transaction with cash from its balance sheet and expects the acquisition to be “slightly dilutive” to non-GAAP earnings per share in the 2016 fiscal year.
eBay’s stock was down slightly Thursday morning to $60.20, in a 52-week range of $46.34 to $63.30.
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