Paysafe’s Top Brass Brushes Aside Takeover Rumors As the Processor Focuses on a Maturing Sales Effort

Rumors about an acquisition of Paysafe Ltd. have swirled around the company for nearly a month, and the processor’s top management early Tuesday were in no hurry to add fuel to the speculation.

“We’re going to stick to no real comment,” said chief executive Bruce Lowthers while addressing an equity analyst’s query about the matter. “We’ve had inquiries come in. We feel we’re creating a lot of value, so it was not unexpected.” Ultimately, he said, the Paysafe board will decide the matter.

Speculation about a takeover briefly drove Paysafe’s stock to nearly $24 per share on Feb. 6, but that momentum quickly drained and the shares soon settled into high-teens territory over the ensuing days. The stock started the day Tuesday at $19.22.

With the passage of time since the rumors emerged, some observers have concluded the company may simply have put the matter on the shelf. “It could be they were just testing the economic winds, favorable or foul,” notes Cliff Gray, proprietor of Gray Consulting, in an email message to Digital Transactions News.

Testing the market or not, Paysafe has some reason to boast. “We have proven our ability to accelerate growth,” Lowthers said during the Tuesday earnings call. “I’m more optimistic [for the company] today than I was three years ago when I joined Paysafe.” He cited “solid growth” in the company’s small-and-medium-size business channel, with much of it driven by Paysafe’s agreement with Fiserv Inc. to peddle Fiserv’s popular Clover point-of-sale technology to merchants.

“We’re doing really well selling Clover,” Lowthers said, estimating the technology has helped drive sales in the small-business channel by a “low teen” percentage year-over-year.” Overall, Paysafe’s merchant business overall will “grow robustly” this year, predicted chief financial officer John Crawford during the call, though he added, “Gross profit will be more robust in the second half than the first half.” Crawford took over as CFO in September.

The coming months will also lead to a more mature, larger, and better-prepared sales team, Lowthers promised. “I feel good about the people we’re bringing on board as they ramp up,” he said. “2025 will be about continuing to ramp them up, continuing to bring maturity to that organization.”

Digital wallets, which account for 48% of Paysafe’s business, delivered 4% revenue growth last year, slowing down from 7% in 2023 but a turnaround from a 7% slide in 2022, according to numbers released Tuesday. The merchant-acquiring line of business grew 6% last year, a slight slowdown from 2023, while the company’s e-commerce revenue surged 30%, slightly more than the growth in 2023 and an about-face from a 3% drop in 2022. E-commerce processing accounts for 10% of Paysafe’s total business.  Overall, Lowthers said, 2024 represented the “completion of our turnaround” from the position he found when he took over in 2022. Now, he said, the company can “focus on sales-cycle productivity.”

Payments volume came to $40 billion for the December quarter, up 12% year-over-year, and $151.7 billion for the year, an 8% rise. The fourth-quarter result came despite an $11-million “headwind” from “disposed businesses,” the company said. Revenue for the quarter totaled $420.1 million, up slightly more than 1%; for the year, $1.7 billion, up 6%. Adjusted net income for Paysafe as a whole in 2024 dipped 8% to $132.5 million.

Overall, declared Lowthers, “I’m more optimistic today than I was three years ago when I joined Paysafe.”