211–220 of 333 posts
The future is direct payments without middlemen. So consolidation of these legacy players is not unexpected - their revenue whilst sizeable is going to continually decrease every year as people use cards less (Many countries have/are rolling out their domestic app2app or bank2retailer payment system).
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Just a couple of months ago, someone was still suing[1] to block Alaska Air/Hawaiian. This is a merger that already entirely went through. I would predict equal likelihood of some state lawsuit derailing a merger like this. [1] https://viewfromthewing.com/passengers-demand-court-undo-ala...
There's a pretty clear difference between a lawsuit by 8 individuals, vs one filed by attorneys general representing a combined ~100m people.
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In my experience, having worked at several large PSPs, it is Mastercard and Visa who are the morality police. Stripe are just enforcing the rules insisted on by them, and PayPal forgot about them 3 layoffs ago.
Then how do other processors go over the Visa and MC rails for these transaction types? How does Stripe allow some and then block others?
[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-26/how-to-bu...
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States have the ability to sue to block mergers as well as the federal government. See the recent 11 state lawsuit seeking to block the WarnerMount merger.
Just a couple of months ago, someone was still suing[1] to block Alaska Air/Hawaiian. This is a merger that already entirely went through. I would predict equal likelihood of some state lawsuit derailing a merger like this. [1] https://viewfromthewing.com/passengers-demand-court-undo-ala...
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Then how do other processors go over the Visa and MC rails for these transaction types? How does Stripe allow some and then block others?
Which ones? Mastercard banned cannabis related changes before [1] [1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-26/how-to-bu...
Perhaps you are confusing cannabis with cannabis-adjacent business (grow lights, compliance solutions, etc)
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It's not billions. My assertion is they will throw away processing millions to ensure they can continue to process billions. You'd ignore a pence to pick up a pound.
Paypal earned 30b net revenue in 2025, without any specific numbers, it's a safe bet that high-risk merchants are at least several billion of that total. However, even if it were only in the hundred millions, there's no reason to throw away millions of dollars. The reason PayPal services these lines of business in the first place is because they make money doing so (since unlike Stripe, PayPal's product isn't subject…
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> informal agreement to keep transaction fees about the same This would be like, ridiculously illegal. It's also not practical; if you can steal customers, the incentive to undercut is very strong.
Is it? I can imagine scenarios where they're better off accepting a duopoly if it allows the profit margin to be 3x higher
They are better off cooperating, but if one defects first they can screw the other one, so it relies on trust.
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Paypal earned 30b net revenue in 2025, without any specific numbers, it's a safe bet that high-risk merchants are at least several billion of that total. However, even if it were only in the hundred millions, there's no reason to throw away millions of dollars. The reason PayPal services these lines of business in the first place is because they make money doing so (since unlike Stripe, PayPal's product isn't subject…
You're obviously much smarter and more knowledgeable than me. I'm just going to abandon this conversation.
Anyway, if that's the quality of conversation you're offering then abandoning the conversation makes sense. Have a good one.
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Stripe can be ridiculously restrictive. A few years ago at a psychiatric company that (among other things) offered therapy, TMS, and also esketamine/IV ketamine that was only offered in office, prescribed by a psychiatrist that has determined it is a medically prudent treatment, and closely monitored. They also offered some seminars during the year that other doctors could pay to attend that counts towards their CE c…
And yet some on this thread seem to think Stripe wouldn't shut off valid, law abiding paying customers.
What I find weird about this is that JohnC has been saying for decades that large mergers are pretty bad for both companies. You spend 2,3 years in limbo, figuring out what in the world to do with the other large organization. When Stripe makes acquisitions it's historically been small companies, doing things Stripe isn't doing. It's the kind of situation where pc is unlikely to speak publicly here, but I sure would…