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Former HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores jumped from one struggling technology giant to another when he left HP for PayPal, but only months into his new job, investors may already be looking at a far more dramatic solution than another painful corporate turnaround: sell PayPal for roughly $53 billion. Lores spent decades at HP and led the company through relentless cost cutting, thousands of job reductions, declining traditional printing demand and repeated attempts to reinvent a business still heavily dependent on lucrative ink and toner supplies; now he has inherited PayPal, another once-dominant company fighting slower growth, aggressive competition and a massive collapse from its pandemic-era market valuation. Lores can promise restructuring, AI, lower costs and a new growth strategy, but Wall Street has heard turnaround promises before—and a reported $53 billion takeover proposal from Stripe and private-equity firm Advent International suddenly puts a price on the alternative. The uncomfortable question is whether Lores can accomplish at PayPal what critics argue remained unfinished at HP: restore sustained growth without relying heavily on layoffs, restructuring and cost cuts. If investors lose patience waiting for another corporate transformation, Lores’ biggest achievement at PayPal may not be fixing the company at all—it could be selling it off for $53 billion.

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July 20, 2026 at 10:39 AM