UK Approves PayPal’s iZettle Acquisition

With the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) decision to provide final and unconditional approval of PayPal’s completed acquisition of iZettle, the digital payments company will start to integrate the teams and products of iZettle in the U.K. and around the world. The move will significantly bolster the in-store presence and platform of PayPal, according to an announcement.

PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman said in the announcement, “I am pleased our acquisition of iZettle has been unconditionally approved.” Schulman continued, “We believe there is huge potential in giving millions of small businesses access to affordable tools to run their business and look forward to working together with the iZettle team to make this a reality.”

In the announcement, the company noted, “The CMA has published its view on its website that the acquisition will not lead to competition concerns.”

The news comes as PayPal announced last September that it had completed its acquisition of iZettle. PayPal at the time said the closed $2.2 billion deal builds on the company’s products and services that are geared toward small businesses in a press release at the time.

PayPal Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready said per that release, “We’re thrilled to welcome the iZettle team to the PayPal family and are excited to expand the ways we serve our small business customers.” Ready continued, “iZettle brings a suite of products and services that allows merchants to meet their customers where they are — online, in store or via mobile. This is another step in our journey toward democratizing commerce tools to help businesses of all sizes thrive.”

As part of the announcement of the deal last May, Schulman said the two companies are a strategic fit with a shared mission. He said at the time, “In today’s digital world, consumers want to be able to buy when, where and how they want.”