PayPal categorically denied it was pursuing a deal to buy social media company Pinterest, putting to bed speculation the payments giant was in discussions to acquire the company to widen the scope of its own service.

In a brief statement, PayPal was clear in explaining it is not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time.

The payments company referred to “market rumours” regarding a potential deal for Pinterest.

Last week reports in business titles including Bloomberg claimed PayPal was in talks over purchasing Pinterest. The deal’s value was pinned at around $45 billion and would have been the payment service’s largest acquisition to date.

The potential deal was thought to be the latest in PayPal’s attempts to move its service beyond providing basic payment services, having already added savings products, shopping tools and messaging to its platform in some markets.

Rumours of a potential purchase came as Pinterest continues to bolster shopping facilities on its own app, and a week after its co-founder Evan Sharp announced he was stepping back from being chief design and creative officer into an advisory role.