PayPal gains bigger in-store presence with $2.2B acquisition

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - PayPal is buying financial services startup iZettle for $2.2 billion to expand its digital payment service into thousands of brick-and-mortar stores in Europe and Latin America.

The deal announced Thursday marks the largest acquisition in PayPal's 20-year history and intensifies its competition with Square, a payment processor started by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey.

Both PayPal and Square are vying to help mostly small- and medium-sized retailers process sales that aren't paid with cash.

After the deal closes, PayPal will gain a presence in stores located in 11 new markets: Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

PayPal, based in San Jose, California, says Stockholm-based iZettle is on pace to process about $6 billion in payments this year.