GameStop, the American video game chain that became the standard bearer of 2021’s meme stock rush, has stunned Wall Street with an unsolicited $55.5bn (£40.9bn) cash and stock offering for online marketplace eBay.
The offer is priced at $125 per share, representing a $20 premium to eBay’s closing price in New York on Friday. Ryan Cohen, GameStop’s CEO and the activist investor who engineered the retailer’s unlikely turnaround, has signaled he is willing to pass the offer directly to eBay shareholders if the board rejects him.
Cohen, who has made a name for himself for cage-rattling boardroom interventions since becoming the founder of online pet retailer Chewy, told the Wall Street Journal that eBay “should and will be worth a lot more money,” adding that under new owners the marketplace “could be a real competitor to Amazon.” Under the terms presented, he would be appointed chief executive of the enlarged group without salary or bonus and would receive his remuneration based solely on share price performance.
The proposal was met with barely concealed skepticism from the city and Wall Street alike. Morgan Stanley described the two companies as having “fundamentally different” business models, while analysts at Bernstein pointed to the gaping gap between GameStop’s balance sheet and the size of its price and said they would be “surprised if anything came of it.” Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at research firm Forrester, was equally blunt when speaking to Daily Sparkz, warning that the deal would “saddle eBay with GameStop’s debt” and noted wryly: “The truth is, we’re not necessarily bringing two strong companies together.”
Nevertheless, the financial architecture is there. GameStop, which is currently capitalized at about $11.9 billion, has secured a commitment from TD Securities for about $20 billion in debt financing, and Cohen has earmarked $2 billion in annual cost reductions within 12 months of completion. He wants to generate these savings primarily from eBay’s sales and marketing function, which he says has failed to capitalize on what GameStop describes as a “marketplace with near-universal brand recognition.”
For eBay, the approach hits a tricky spot. Founded in 1995 as a haven for hobbyists and collectors, the platform was once a defining icon of the early internet, but has seen its active user base shrink from 175 million in 2018 to 136 million today, steadily losing ground to Amazon, Shopify-powered direct-to-consumer brands, and a new wave of social commerce upstarts. The board confirmed it would consider the proposal, although insiders have privately questioned whether a leveraged offer from a smaller brick-and-mortar operator represents a credible path forward.
GameStop’s own story remains a story of corporate theater. The company was catapulted into the public consciousness during the pandemic when an army of retail investors organizing on Reddit forced a short squeeze that briefly rewrote market mechanics. Since then, the company has used its inflated valuation to shore up its balance sheet and reorient itself under Cohen, who took over as CEO in 2023. Net income rose to $418.4 million in 2025, up from $131.3 million a year earlier, although sales continued to decline, the familiar pattern of a retailer heading toward profitability rather than growing into it.
Investors gave their verdict quickly. eBay shares closed up 5 percent in New York on Monday while GameStop fell more than 9 percent, the market’s clear assessment that the value created by the deal would clearly flow in one direction.
For Cohen, however, the strategic logic goes beyond the spreadsheet. He argues that GameStop’s network of about 1,600 American stores would give eBay a ready-made physical presence for live trading, authentication services and other ventures that have struggled to gain traction online alone. Whether this proposal is sufficient to overcome the structural and financial objections that are mounting against the offer is currently a completely open question.
There is no doubt that Cohen has once again ensured that the corporate establishment cannot ignore him.
