(Bloomberg) -- Elliott Investment Management is building a stake in PayPal Holdings Inc., the payments giant that has been firing staff and closing offices to cut expenses. 

Elliott plans to push for PayPal to speed those cost-reduction efforts, according to people familiar with the matter. The activist investor may ultimately become one of the company’s five-largest shareholders, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Representatives for Elliott and PayPal declined to comment.

Shares of PayPal have plummeted 75% in the past year as spending growth on its many platforms has slowed. The shares fell 5.7% to $77.04 Tuesday in New York trading, giving the company a market value of $89 billion.

The company is facing supply chain disruptions and once-in-a-generation levels of inflation that have hindered e-commerce, while more consumers have been returning to in-store shopping. All the while, EBay Inc., PayPal’s former parent company, has been rapidly moving payments away from its platform.

That’s forced Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman to rejigger plans for the year as he seeks to improve operating leverage -- or the ability to grow revenue faster than expenses.

PayPal has warned it will incur an additional $100 million in restructuring charges this year, though job cuts will ultimately help the firm save about $260 million a year in employee-related costs. 

Elliott’s stake was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal. Florida-based Elliott, led by billionaire Paul Singer, has agitated some of the world’s largest companies.

(Updates with share price in fourth paragraph. A spelling of PayPal was corrected in an earlier version of this story.)

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