The software giant announced Thursday it has agreed to acquire Paypal as part of a deal valued at more than $2.7 trillion.

The deal, which also includes $1.735 billion in cash and the option to buy back the company’s stock, will be completed in three to four years, according to a statement from Microsoft.

Paypal was founded in 1997 and is one of the world’s most popular payment processors.

The company’s business model relies on a centralized payment gateway that connects millions of businesses and consumers to an online payment network.

In a blog post, Paypal CEO Alex Stamos said that the acquisition of Paypal will improve the organization’s customer service, increase transparency, and enable the company to grow in other markets.

The acquisition comes just days after it announced a $1 billion acquisition of online payment service Square.

The deal will be the largest acquisition of a payment service provider by a major technology company, and it follows other Microsoft acquisitions of other payment service providers including payment processor Square.

PayPal has a network of more than 200,000 payment processors around the world, with the majority of those located in the United States.

The company’s chief executive officer, Michael Moritz, said in a statement that the transaction with Microsoft “will allow us to accelerate our commitment to improving our platform and customer experience, while expanding our business globally.”

Microsoft has been aggressively pursuing online payment services in recent years, especially after PayPal acquired Square last year.

In 2016, Microsoft acquired Venmo, a payment processor with more than 500 million users in 40 countries.

In 2017, Microsoft bought Square, a company that makes a payment platform that helps users make online payments.