My hope is they will not be acquired and will keep this stand-alone as a true alternative rather than be eaten and then to lose all their advantages. Acquisitions of companies like this usually spell the end of the line. Here's to hoping Stripe will IPO and will go on to acquire who could now potentially acquire them.

I'm not sure who'd have the ability to make that type of acquisition, to be honest. Maybe First Data? That would may even be a stretch.

Card issuers (VISA, MC), Amazon, Microsoft, major banks, Ebay, Paypal, Due, Payline, Paysquare. A leveraged buy-out would enable many more potential takers.

Visa and MC are not card issuers. They are card networks.

A card issuer is a person that issues a credit card, so major banks, and Amex who happens to be both a card issuer and card network.

To add to the other list (all plausible):

Google, dozens of international companies (eg Softbank or SAP), Walmart, Target, Costco, IBM, Oracle, and numerous others.

Basically, several dozen companies are serious potential buyers. And that's before getting into the secondary list, which includes companies like Intel, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc.

I think a majority of their processing traffic goes through Wells Fargo. They would be a possible acquirer.

I'm sick of seeing really good startups being bought out. Makes you not want to trust any of them long term

> me (a nobody)

Well, you're got quite the Twitter following, probably nearly entirely in Stripe's target demographic :-)

But yeah, that is cool.

I interviewed with Stripe early this year, and whilst sadly we couldn't go forward due to the fact that I'm British and was too late for an H1B - it was one of the most pleasant interviews I have ever had.

Why do you think Stripe will get acquired (and soon)?

I personally think it'll stay a standalone company because its founders already have plenty of money (from Auctomatic and presumably from taking money off the table during Stripe's funding rounds) and seem intensely motivated to change the world by having a pivotal role in increasing the GDP of the internet (as stated in the article).

That, coupled with its (both the company and its founders) integrity, culture, and care & empathy for people (employees, investors, customers, partners, underserved and underestimated people and markets, and really almost anyone) seems to indicate to me that its core values and objectives will be best served and achieved as an independent entity.

Erm, how does taking money off the table when raising a round work? (just never heard of it)

Raise 100M, 20M is set aside for salaries/bonuses. As long as the numbers work and people believe you, investors like people who want lots of money, because they know they are going to work their asses off to make a profit.