Paypal Holdings Inc, the US based parent firm of online payment service provider PayPal recently revealed in an announcement that it has finally completed acquisition of Honey Science Corp. The payment giant initially made an announcement revealing its plans and efforts to buy the L.A. headquartered tech firm Honey Science Corp in a deal that was approximately estimated to cost around US$ 4 billion. The acquisition was aimed at gaining complete control over Honey’s browser plug-in which online shoppers used to find best shopping deals. The plug-in was very popular and seeing a fast paced increase in market share which caught the attention of multinational payment giant which saw this plug-in as a means to further its dominance in digital commerce while enhancing the firm’s value proposition, driving increased sales and conversion for its merchants.
Paypal hopes to leverage the plugin’s customer base in combination with its two-sided network to transform shopping experience for its clients while at same time increasing its sales and customer engagement for its merchants. While the tech start-up’s most commonly known product is the deal finding plug-in, since its debut in 2012 the firm has continued to grow and evolve all the while expanding its product and services portfolio which now includes mobile shopping assistant, price tracking tools and alerts etc. These products have helped its users save nearly $ 1 billion annually while also helping the firm increase its online merchant clients to nearly 30000 retailers at the time the deal for acquisition was made public. The statement which was release in November stated “Honey will accelerate its growth by driving adoption among PayPal and Venmo’s more than 275 million active consumer accounts and sourcing exclusive offers from PayPal’s extensive network of 24 million merchant accounts”.
Moving forward, Honey is expected to continue functioning as separate entity under PayPal’s banner while continuing to be led by its Co-Founders Ryan & George who will be reporting to senior VP John Kunze. Commenting on completion of the acquisition deal, Dan Schulman – CEO of PayPal said, “We’re thrilled to complete this transformative transaction and to welcome the Honey team to the PayPal family. The addition of Honey to our platform enables a significant step forward in our commitment to provide powerful services and tools for merchants and consumers, move beyond our core checkout proposition and significantly enhance the shopping experience for our 300 million consumers and merchants”. Speaking about the deal, Ryan Hudson – Co-founder of the firm said, “Combining PayPal’s assets and reach with our technology, we can build powerful new online shopping experiences for consumers and merchants. We’ll have the ability to help millions of retailers efficiently reach consumers with offers that deliver more and more value to Honey members”.
