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PayPal acquires the company behind the Honey deal-finding extension for $4 billion

PayPal acquires the company behind the Honey deal-finding extension for $4 billion

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PayPal should have tried a coupon code

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today, PayPal announced that it has acquired Honey Science Corporation, the company that makes the popular Honey deal-finding Chrome extension, for “approximately $4 billion.” TechCrunch reports that the deal is mostly cash.

When you’re shopping on one of the 30,000 online retailers Honey works with, the extension will find coupon codes for things you add to your cart and attempt to automatically apply them for you. In my experience, though, the codes Honey finds don’t always work — Best Buy’s online store didn’t take a Honey-found coupon for an order I created for a Nintendo Switch, for example — but it’s a useful service to at least help you check for coupon codes before you buy something.

Honey can also track prices of an individual item and notify you when it drops below a certain threshold. Honey also offers a rewards program, Honey Gold, which gives you “Gold” for using Honey while you’re shopping that can be redeemed for gift cards. (PayPal-owned Venmo just launched a similar rewards program for its physical debit card.)

PayPal’s press release isn’t clear about exactly how Honey and its deal-finding tech will be integrated into PayPal’s products, but in an interview with TechCrunch, PayPal SVP John Kunze said that PayPal wants to build Honey’s functionality “into the PayPal and Venmo experiences.” PayPal merchant partners will also apparently be able to use Honey to offer more targeted promotions, according to TechCrunch.

Honey’s brand will remain, according to PayPal, and the company will still be headquartered in Los Angeles. Honey’s co-founders will also stay on, reporting to Kunze.