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PayPal to buy deal-finding service Honey for $4 billion

Browser extension automatically digs up and applies coupon codes for thousands of online stores.

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PayPal is acquiring deal-finding service Honey Science for $4 billion.

Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images
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The Honey browser extension find deals by automatically digging up and applying coupon codes for thousands of online stores.

Screenshot by CNET

PayPal announced Wednesday it would acquire online deal-finding service Honey Science for $4 billion. Founded in 2012, Honey operates a browser extension that helps shoppers find deals by automatically digging up and applying coupon codes for thousands of online stores.

Once installed, the Honey extension displays a little badge alongside an online item's price indicating whether you're seeing the best price. Honey says currently it works with 30,000 online retailers, ranging from fashion to tech, and has 17 million active monthly users.

PayPal said the acquisition will help it expand its reach to consumers and help merchants gain new customers.

"The combination of Honey's complementary consumer products with our platform will significantly enhance our ability to drive engagement and play a more meaningful role in the daily lives of our consumers," PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement.

The acquisition is the largest in PayPal's two-decade history. The online payments company's previous largest purchase was last year's acquisition of Swedish payments company iZettie for $2.2 billion.

Honey co-founders Ryan Hudson and George Ruan will continue to lead Honey after the acquisition is completed, PayPal said. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.

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