GameStop Offers to Buy eBay for $56 Billion (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0183122440
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/05/04/1612202/gamestop-offers-to-buy-ebay-for-56-billion
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/04/gamestop-ebay-takeover-bid-ryan-cohen-gaming-retail-ecommerce.html
> Cohen said GameStop has a commitment letter from TD Bank to provide up to $20 billion in debt financing to help make a deal possible. GameStop delivered an offer letter to eBay on Sunday and released a copy of it following the Journal's report on the details of the bid. Cohen wrote in the letter to eBay Chairman Paul Pressler that GameStop started building its eBay position on Feb. 4. It said its offer consists of 50% cash and 50% GameStop shares.
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> EBay [4]said Monday morning its board and financial advisers would review GameStop's unsolicited proposal. It said there were no discussions with or outreach from GameStop before receiving the offer. Ebay added that it will review the offer "with a focus on the value to be delivered to eBay shareholders, including the value of the GameStop stock consideration and the ability of GameStop to deliver a binding, actionable proposal."
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> If eBay isn't receptive, Cohen said he was prepared to run a proxy fight and take the offer directly to its shareholders. The window for shareholders to nominate director candidates at eBay ahead of an annual meeting scheduled for this June has already closed, according to the company's proxy materials. Cohen told the Journal that putting his videogame retailer and eBay under one roof could create opportunities to cut costs and improve earnings. The two companies have some overlap already, including a focus on selling collectibles such as trading cards. "There is nobody who is more qualified, based on my experience, to run the eBay business," Cohen said, referencing his time at GameStop and previously Chewy, the online pet-products marketplace he co-founded.
[1] https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Proposes-to-Acquire-eBay-at-125-00-Per-Share/
[2] https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/gamestop-ebay-bid-fd330f5a
[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/04/gamestop-ebay-takeover-bid-ryan-cohen-gaming-retail-ecommerce.html
[4] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ebay-confirms-receipt-of-unsolicited-proposal-from-gamestop-302761245.html
Ebay + Retail = Win (Score:1)
I think there is potential here.
News to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Gamestop still exists? How?
Here we go again (Score:5, Insightful)
GameStop is (was) a meme stock, whose value got inflated due to social media trends. I'm guessing this Ryan fellow doesn't see a big upside to the GameStop business plan or revenue possibilities, and he thinks that a splashy move like this could start the memes rolling again.
To me as an eBay customer, this doesn 't sound good. I detect the wafting aroma of enshiatification.
Re: (Score:3)
It could be freakin great though, if they adopted a bit of the Amazon logistics soup recipe. They have shitloads of pickup locations scattered about already.
It would be sweet if I could buy from eBay and go pick it up at a local GameStop for free / reduced price instead of paying to wait 3 weeks for the slowest media mail on the planet because the buyer wanted to use the shipping money as extra profit.
Re: (Score:3)
And I would appreciate it as a seller. Twice in the past year I've had buyers claim the item was broken when they got it. These were solid metal, rock hard items that were wrapped in bubble wrap and a box. I believe it is impossible that it was broken during shipping. I assume they just sent photos of their old, broken item and used eBay to get me to send them a replacement for free (including shipping). But I have no way of verifying or proving this, because even if I asked for the broken item back, they j
Re: (Score:2)
> If I could instead take it to an eBay store front, maybe someone will buy it locally, but if not, they can handle packaging and shipping off to someone else and take a cut of the profits. Might make me consider eBay again.
You're basically describing a consignment shop.
Re: (Score:2)
> It would be sweet if I could buy from eBay and go pick it up at a local GameStop for free / reduced price instead of paying to wait 3 weeks for the slowest media mail on the planet because the buyer wanted to use the shipping money as extra profit.
That'd only work if you were buying products where GameStop is the seller. Plenty of other online marketplaces already do the whole ship-to-store-from-3rd-party-seller thing (Walmart and Home Depot immediately come to mind) and it's neither faster nor more convenient than having the order shipped directly to your home.
GameStop brings nothing good to the table by buying eBay - they'll likely enshittify it further with stupid crypto schemes, AI shopping agents, or other various crap no one asked for.
Re:Here we go again (Score:4, Insightful)
This is like when K-Mart (which was failing) bought Sears (which was not failing) and then they both went down.
Re: (Score:2)
Both of those examples are of equity manipulation: make the companies assume debt and hollow out their core business, and sell their real assets to another company for cheap.
That's not what's happening here, particularly since GameStop is doing well and paypal is increasingly enshitified with scam posts and bad policies which screw sellers when a buyer wants to make a fraudulent claim. I lost thousands due to the latter and have heard of many people recently swindled by the former.
Re: (Score:2)
You got it backwards. It was an undervalued, heavily shorted stock (still is) for a viable company that was doing well, financially, and people figured out that the people doing the shorts were intentionally bankrupting companies for profit. So they decided to do something about it, and maintain the stock value.
As for enshitification on Ebay... go try to buy a "big ticket" item on Ebay like a video card or Mac, half to 9/10 of all listings are "great" deals - from new accounts with anywhere from 0 sales to
Time travel back to April Fool's Day? (Score:2)
Or did May the Fourth (be with you) swap places with it? This can't be real.
Re: Time travel back to April Fool's Day? (Score:2)
Just think of the possibilities, you can play video games and buy other people's junk at the same time, now that's multi-tasking I can get in to
But... (Score:5, Funny)
...is the offer on Ebay ?!?
The rules are made up and points don't matter. (Score:2)
Meme stock -> meme economy -> meme civilization -> meme species.
There is some logic to this (Score:5, Interesting)
Gamestop made a business model of taking used products and selling them on. Unlike the storefronts that tried to make a living by helping people sell on eBay, Gamestop already has those locations in place, with a compatible business. Adding grading and verification, and maybe even packaging and shipping makes sense. How many more people would sell their unwanted items if all they had to do was drop them off and someone else handles the listing, selling, packaging and shipping.
Re: (Score:2)
> Gamestop already has those locations in place
Do they? Every single GameStop location near me in Southern California has closed.
Re: There is some logic to this (Score:2)
Might just be your neighborhood. There are still plenty in the LA area. In my state, about a third of the locations have closed in the past decade. However there are still several within a reasonable drive.
I would be interested to see if there is a nexus between GameStop locations that have closed and check cashing stores. Iâ(TM)m not implying a positive or negative correlation. Just curious if there is a correlation.
Re: (Score:2)
eBay started offering to ship stuff for sellers recently. You buy the shipping from them, and drop the package off at some local collection point.
If it gets damaged during shipping, it's eBay's problem. They refund the buyer, and you keep the money from the sale too. I guess they claim from the courier (Evri in the UK), but obviously are reliant on the buyer to send photos showing a damaged package. I imagine very few take photos before ripping it open.
I'm pretty sure some people just sell broken stuff and
Re: (Score:2)
> How many more people would sell their unwanted items if all they had to do was drop them off and someone else handles the listing, selling, packaging and shipping.
Generally the reason people sell on eBay instead of letting someone else handle the listing, selling, packaging and shipping is because you can keep more profit for yourself. GameStop isn't anywhere close to being a monopoly on turning your used crap into cash, and often their offers (unless you're interested in store credit, which made more sense back in the days before Steam was a thing) aren't much better than what you'd get from a pawn shop.
Come to think of it, GameStop should just rebrand as PawnStop,
Oh good (Score:2)
Ebay has already enshittified with their “live” influencer auctions and relaxing the accuracy of the search results. It used to be you entered a part number and received exact results. Now it’s all related part numbers like google. They do respect wrapping in quotes for now at least.
Time to buy Game Stop stock (Score:2)
Pump up the volume.
Almost a Dupe (Score:3)
[1]GameStop is preparing an offer for eBay [slashdot.org] is from two days ago, and some of the comments there were actually appropriate.
> Because: CEO Ryan Cohen has signalled interest in large-scale acquisitions to grow GameStop into a significantly larger business. Cohen’s compensation package includes incentives tied to achieving a $100 billion market valuation.
(posted by an A/C)
[1] https://slashdot.org/story/26/05/02/0010242/gamestop-is-preparing-offer-for-ebay
It's a scam (Score:2)
This is an obvious scam. GameStop is dying and this is meant to pump the stock a bit at the very end.
Our entire economy is a grift now. I'm sure that's fine though.
Ebay is going nowhere (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been buying and selling heavily on ebay since 2004. Their leadership and overall code changes, reactions to issues, etc is glacial. Absolutely ridiculous for a relatively small tech company that does 1 thing! Their support is bad, because it doesn't exist. Their policies are garbage. Their last 3 CEOs were morons. Everything they do is playing catchup, raising fees, and nothing. They're really good at doing nothing, actually. But Gamestop specializes in going bankrupt and ripping off customers. So I do
Re: (Score:2)
It's fascinating how Ebay is still solvent, having done nothing of meaning for close to 20 years with basically only a slight UI uplift in the past 15. They seem to thrive primarily on the backs of people getting scammed - either sellers being scammed by buyers, or fraudsters relying on what little exists of Ebay's reputation to get a quick fraud sale.
Reminds me of when AOL bought Time Warner (Score:2)
Time Warner had (and has) an enduring business model; AOL was the meme stock of its day.
Sure... (Score:2)
With the ever-increasing shift towards online game purchases (be it through steam, the playstation store, xbox store, whatever) having a brick-and-mortar game store is a dying business model.
Gamestop bought thinkgeek in 2014 for 140M and basically let it all wither away. They'd certainly be looking for something else to diversify and try to survive, because if they don't there's no way but down. Can't blame them for wanting to acquire something with an actual viable business model.
Of course whether any
sear clone (Score:3)
CEO Ryan Cohen ... same type of marketeer that promised Sears & Robuck could quadruple sales. Just fire competence ... sell China your best brand ... stop serving hot-dogs ... follow my unicorn.
Cohen is a trainwreck (Score:2)
CNBC Interview with Ryan Cohen this morning.
Either he did this interview after an all-night Hunter Biden-esque binge of crack and hookers or he is a complete moron. Entirely incapable of understanding or answering obvious and basic questions. Watch and make your own judgement.
[1]https://youtu.be/Bmj2PaxX24E?s... [youtu.be]
[1] https://youtu.be/Bmj2PaxX24E?si=MFnYgDIqSDkHShCq&t=136
Re: (Score:2)
That's pretty crazy. 100% US Grade A clown-world right there.
eBay would have to be stupid to accept this (Score:2)
What you have is Gamestop, a failing business caused by people not buying retail when they can order online, or streaming for games. Any shareholders or executives at eBay would have to be an idiot to accept the offer. Gamestop should go for other businesses that are having problems, so would be happy for the chance of a buyout or merger before they are forced to liquidate the business.
eBay is Now eStop! (Score:2)
Welcome to the all-new eStop! We know you have concerns, so let us put them to rest straight away.
The site will not change. We respect the investment you've made in learning and navigating the site. However, if you're feeling curious or adventurous, feel free to check out our [new site design prototype]. (This design will become the default landing page in mid-2027; the old site UI will enter maintenance mode for only the most critical bugs.)
To thwart LLMs and other bots, new default limits on biddi
Where the other $36bn come from? (Score:5, Interesting)
Gamestop has a market cap of $11bn and cash on hand of $9bn. Who would lend these lunatics $36bn?
That said someone did lend Musk $44bn for the dumbest purchase ever so I guess someone out there will float the cash Gamestop wants to spend.
Re:Where the other $36bn come from? (Score:4, Interesting)
yeah, how the hell are those guys sitting on $9b in cash?
Re: (Score:2)
Riding their own status as a meme stock, I'm guessing.
Re: (Score:3)
How are they going to more than double their own market cap by just issuing new stock? Why not issue a lot more stock and buy Apple, Google, Microsoft, and few other companies while at it? They could offer 10 trillion each in Game Stock, since they can issue any amount of stock they want, right?
Re: (Score:1)
Tell me you shouldn't make assumptions without telling me you shouldn't make assumptions.
Where did I ever say that I traded stocks?
Where did I ever say it wasn't a one-liner shitpost meant for a laugh?
Adjust your sensitivity knob. Yeesh.
Re:Where the other $36bn come from? (Score:4, Interesting)
Has to be some kind of leveraged buyout where the insane valuation of the company they are buying based on the insane valuation of their own company is supposed to produce magic value and a more insane combined valuation from which they will "easily" pay off all the borrowed money that lubricated the rest of the deal. Usually has some vulture elements of splitting up and selling pieces that have insane projections of future sales.
Too bad such insanity isn't illegal.
My solution delusion would be pro-freedom anti-greedom taxation where such deals would basically become poisonous. The merger would result in higher taxes on the profits for the monopoly-building aspects, thus lowering the precious retaining earnings after taxes. Create a natural path to higher retained earnings by spawning competing child companies... "Can't get there from here."
Re: (Score:2)
> Has to be some kind of leveraged buyout where the insane valuation of the company they are buying based on the insane valuation of their own company
Please don't trade stocks mate. They stated in TFS how they are proposing to buy it.
Re: (Score:2)
> Who would lend these lunatics $36bn?
Well, lunatics that trust AI to help them make their investment decisions, of course!
Re: (Score:2)
> Who would lend these lunatics $36bn?
From TFS:
> Cohen said GameStop has a commitment letter from TD Bank to provide up to $20 billion in debt financing to help make a deal possible.
I guess this guy is either hoping for, or actually has other investors ready to provide the other U$D 16 milliard. Probably, those investors will come forward once the deal clears some other hurdles.
Re: (Score:2)
And where is Cohen going to get $36B in GameStock stock, which currently has a market cap of under $11B, so even if they offered every single stock in existence (if they bought it all back), it wouldn't even cover a third of that? Issuing 300% more stock doesn't make the company more valuable, the stock price will just dilute.
Re: (Score:2)
The usual trick is, that they can get the money lent not for what they are worth themselves now, but what they will be worth when having bought eBay. If they cannot pay back, the bank gets GameStop *and* eBay, which are together worth 54 Billion.