PayPal to Acquire Money-Transfer Provider Xoom for $890 Million

Just as PayPal gets ready to separate from eBay, it has decided to spruce up its portfolio a bit and get into the $600 billion digital-money transfer market.

On Wednesday, PayPal announced that it has agreed to acquire Xoom, a San Francisco-based digital-money transfer provider for $25 a share, or about $890 million. Many analysts, however, noted that another company could potentially outbid PayPal here.

"Expanding into international money transfer and remittances aligns with our strategic vision to democratize the movement and management of money," PayPal President Dan Schulman. "Acquiring Xoom allows PayPal to offer a broader range of services to our global customer base, increase customer engagement and enter an important and growing adjacent marketplace. Xoom's presence in 37 countries - in particular, Mexico, India, the Philippines, China and Brazil - will help us accelerate our expansion in these important markets."