PayPal Holdings Inc. has been working with advisers to review strategic options, people familiar with the matter said, as Stripe Inc. and private equity firm Advent pursue a $50 billion-plus takeover of the fintech pioneer.

The San Jose, California-based company has been working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Evercore Inc. in recent months to evaluate alternatives including a potential sale or breakup, according to the people.

Stripe and Advent have offered about $60 per share for PayPal, one of the people said. Stripe is particularly interested in Venmo, PayPal’s popular mobile payment app, another person said.

That development sent PayPal shares climbing as much as 17% on Wednesday for its biggest intraday gain on record. The stock was trading 16% higher at 1:28 p.m. in New York at $54.98, giving the company a market value of $48.5 billion.

Deliberations are ongoing, and it’s unclear how PayPal will respond to the suitors’ advances, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Representatives for Stripe, Advent, PayPal, Goldman Sachs and Evercore declined to comment.

The offer from Stripe and Advent is backed by about $50 billion in committed financing from banks, according to Reuters, which first reported the news. Bloomberg News reported in February that Stripe was considering an acquisition of parts or all of PayPal after a stock slump wiped out a chunk of its value.

Early Mover

Founded in the late 1990s, PayPal was an early mover in digital payments. It has since struggled with modernizing its payment technologies as rivals such as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. have seized market share.

PayPal was planning to cut about 20% of its workforce in the next two to three years, people familiar with the matter said in May. The planned reductions represent a part of new Chief Executive Officer Enrique Lores’ effort to reduce costs and turn around the payments company, whose shares have declined more than 40% since the start of last year.

Closely held Stripe, founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison, has become one of the industry’s most coveted players. The company reached a $159 billion valuation in an employee tender offer in February, up from $106.7 billion the previous year.

Stripe has said it remained profitable last year while continuing to invest heavily in product development and acquisitions. The company recently bought stablecoin orchestration platform Bridge and crypto wallet provider Privy as it expands deeper into crypto-related payments.

— By Ryan Gould, Vinicy Chan and Paige Smith (Bloomberg News)