Capital One to buy Discover for $35 billion

Capital One said it would buy rival credit card issuer Discover Financial Services for $35.3 billion in stock

(Image credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)

published 20 February 2024

What happened?

Capital One said Monday it would buy rival credit card issuer Discover Financial Services for $35.3 billion in stock. The deal would create the biggest credit card lender in the country, The Washington Post said, citing Bloomberg Intelligence.

"A space that is already dominated by a relatively small number of megaplayers is about to get a little smaller," said LendingTree analyst Matt Schulz. For consumers, "it's far from clear that bigger means better," Felix Salmon said at Axios. It is "very difficult to imagine" federal regulators allowing the deal to go through, "given the requirement that mergers benefit the public as well as insiders," said Jesse Van Tol, head of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.