PayPal Urges Stockholders to Shun Mini-Tender Offer by Tutanota

PayPal has been notified of an unsolicited mini-tender offer by Tutanota to buy up to 360,000 shares of PayPal common stock, a press release said. PayPal on Friday (Feb. 25) recommended stockholders reject it.

The offer represents significantly less than 1% of PayPal’s common stock outstanding.

The offer price, $125 per share, is based on the closing price per share of PayPal’s common stock exceeding $125 per share on the last trading day before the offer expires. That means that unless the condition is waived by Tutanota, PayPal stockholders who tender their shares in the offer will get a below-market price.

Tutanota says it thinks the offer will be extended for successive periods of 45 to 180 days. In that case, PayPal said payment will be delayed beyond the scheduled expiration of Friday, March 18.

PayPal says stockholders shouldn’t tender shares because it requires that the closing price for PayPal common stock be higher than the offer price.

The offer is subject to several other conditions, including Tutanota obtaining financing.

Tutanota’s mini-tender offer is for less than 5% of the PayPal outstanding shares and so it’s not subject to Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure and procedural requirements designed to protect investors.

Read more: PayPal Among Investors in Frictionless Checkout Firm Skipify

PayPal is reportedly also one of the investors in Skipify, a frictionless commerce firm, PYMNTS wrote.

Synchrony, Amex Ventures and Okta Ventures were the other participants.

Skipify’s services allow merchants to offer instant checkouts on websites, apps and marketing channels.  And the new funding will help Skipify speed up its process of enhancing its product and infrastructure. The company said it also plans to hire more people.

“The shift in consumer behavior from laptops to mobile devices has triggered the shift from typing into tapping,” founder and CEO Ryth Martin said in a news release. “However, the standard checkout process online still remains dependent on nearly two minutes of typing from shoppers. Skipify fixes that.”