Potential suitors would surely include private equity firms. They are often lured by companies that generate lots of cash, and PayPal churned out $5.6bn of free cash flow in 2025. But it would be a large mouthful. Adding a takeover premium of 30 per cent to its three-month average share price would put the company’s enterprise value at about $68bn. That would make it the largest leveraged buyout of all time.