PayPal expands its retail payments business with $2.2-billion Zettle buy

PayPal Holdings Inc has agreed to buy Swedish financial technology startup iZettle for $2.2 billion in the U.S. online payments provider’s biggest ever acquisition.

The deal will allow the Californian company to expand into the retail payment terminals business in international markets, where it will compete with Silicon Valley firm Square Inc founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Stockholm-based iZettle, which had advanced plans to go public, offers small businesses a miniature credit card reader that turns smartphones or tablets into payment registers.

It is present in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America and offers other services for managing small businesses.

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