When a company with good tech buys out a company with crap tech, they're not paying for crap tech — they're paying for the user base.

I would wager that Stripe has already put together a consumer-cash platform, and is weighing whether to deploy it as "Stripe Cash" or "Paypal 2.0". The former strategy would require a slow rollout that would compete with Paypal, Apple Cash, whatever Google and Samsung’s offerings are called… The latter branding would make them the dominant player overnight.

On the other hand, they are getting rid of a competitor.

I hesitate to post this here but I'm not sure Stripe hasn't become most of those things as well now. It's obviously been very successful and I'm happy for the people who built such a useful service in the early years. But I also mourn the loss of the tidy product, transparent pricing, clear documentation, and legendary support that made it exceptional back then.