PayPal takeover of iZettle worth £1.7bn gets green light

The British competition watchdog after a lengthy investigation has given PayPal the green light to takeover iZettle in a £1.7bn deal.

Initially the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised concerns over the takeover that the deal could hamper innovation and PayPal dominating the British market.

The CMA concerns where mainly centred on the market for mobile point of sale (mPOS) terminals, this enables businesses to take “offline” card payments.

On Tuesday the CMA provisional findings said the proposed merger does not raise competition concerns.

Kirstin Baker, chair of the CMA inquiry said, “While iZettle and PayPal are two of the main suppliers of mobile point of service devices, the additional evidence we have analysed indicates that the distinctions between these and ‘traditional’ point of service devices are reducing over time and that large numbers of customers can and do switch to ‘traditional’ point of service devices.”

Dan Schulman, president and chief executive of PayPal said, “We are pleased the CMA has provisionally cleared our transaction.

“We look forward to adding iZettle’s products and services to our platform to help small businesses access even more affordable tools to run their shops and compete against the retail giants.