Gamestop Makes $55.5bn Offer for eBay With Cohen in Charge
gamestop made a $55.5bn unsolicited offer on Sunday to take over eBay, valuing the company at $125 a share in cash and stock. The bid puts Ryan Cohen in line to run the combined company and would pair a $11.9bn seller of shares in e-commerce with a much larger target. For eBay holders, the immediate issue is whether a higher price can survive financing, debt and execution.
Ryan Cohen's $125 Bid
$125 a share was the price gamestop put on eBay, or $20 above eBay's close in New York trading on Friday. Cohen, gamestop's chief executive, said he planned $2bn of cost savings at eBay within a year of completion, with most of the cuts aimed at sales and marketing. He also said spending in that unit had not produced more users for a marketplace with near-universal brand recognition.
13% was the jump in eBay shares in after-hours trading on Friday when word of the potential offer emerged. Sucharita Kodali, a retail industry analyst at Forrester, called it a "terribly good offer" and added, "The truth is, we are not necessarily putting two strong companies together". That split response captures the deal's draw: a premium price on one side, a tougher operating case on the other.
TD Securities Debt Backstop
$20bn is the debt financing gamestop said it has lined up through a commitment letter from TD Securities. That borrowing would help fund a transaction that the company values at $55.5bn, a scale that sits far above gamestop's own market value of around $11.9bn. The math leaves little room for loose spending if the deal closes.
1,600 outlets still give gamestop a physical network in the US, and Cohen said those shops would supply eBay with a national base for live commerce and other business operations. He has criticized gamestop's slow shift into e-commerce since becoming the company's boss in 2023, and he said he would take no salary, no cash bonuses and no golden parachute if he leads the combined company. He said he would be compensated solely based on the performance of the combined company.
eBay's 136 Million Users
136 million users sit behind the target gamestop is trying to buy, a base that began in 1995 when eBay launched as a marketplace for hobbyists. The proposed deal would put that audience under a chief executive who is promising aggressive cost cuts and a different spending mix. For shareholders, the immediate trade-off is between a higher headline offer and the risk that the financing and integration plan has to do too much work too fast.
$2bn in promised savings and $1.2bn of lower spending in sales and marketing are the numbers Cohen has put forward as the case for the takeover. If those targets hold, they would have to offset a debt load built into the transaction and the challenge of tying together two businesses with very different footprints. The bid now turns on whether eBay's board treats the premium as enough to start talks, or whether the operating plan has to become more concrete before the price is taken seriously.
