PayPal profit beats estimates, U.S. Venmo users can pay on Amazon from next year

(Reuters) -PayPal Holdings Inc beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit and said U.S. users of its peer-to-peer payment service Venmo would be able to pay on Amamzon.com starting next year.

The company emerged as one of the big winners of the COVID-19 pandemic as more businesses moved online and consumers preferred using phones and other digital means to pay bills and to shop.

The San Jose, California-based digital payments company's net income rose to $1.09 billion, or 92 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, from $1.02 billion, or 86 cents per share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, PayPal earned $1.11 per share, above analysts' average estimate of $1.07, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net revenue in the third quarter rose over 13% to $6.18 billion.

The payments giant has been beefing up its offerings with acquisitions. In September, the company announced it was buying Japanese buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Paidy in a $2.7 billion deal.

However, the company said last month it was not pursuing a buyout of digital pinboard site Pinterest Inc, after media reports said it was in talks to buy the social media platform for as much as $45 billion.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Bernard Orr)