GameStop has launched a $55.5 billion cash-and-stock offer to acquire eBay at $125 per share, marking a dramatic expansion bid that would reshape the retail landscape and cement CEO Ryan Cohen's vision for a business far beyond video games.
Cohen, who would lead the combined company if the deal closes, told The Wall Street Journal he wants to turn eBay into a "legit competitor to Amazon." The ambition extends beyond competitive positioning. Cohen stands to pocket up to $35 billion in stock compensation if the merged entity reaches a $100 billion valuation, among other performance-based incentives.
The financing structure cobbles together multiple sources. GameStop will use $9.4 billion from its cash and liquid investments as of January 31, 2026, supplemented by up to $20 billion in debt financing from TD Securities and unspecified third-party acquisition financing. The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen may tap Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth funds to bridge any remaining gap.
GameStop's public letter from Cohen to eBay president Paul Pressler underscores confidence in his ability to run the platform. Cohen committed to taking "no salary, no cash bonuses, and no golden parachute," pledging compensation tied solely to company performance. When pressed on eBay's refusal, Cohen signaled he would bypass the board and take the offer directly to shareholders. "There is nobody who is more qualified, based on my experience, to run the eBay business," he told the Journal.
The operational playbook reveals how Cohen intends to unlock value. GameStop claims eBay is underperforming its cost structure and promises $2 billion in annualized cost reductions within 12 months of closing. The company plans to integrate eBay's e-commerce operations into its sprawling retail footprint of 1,600 U.S. stores, positioning each location as an authentication hub, intake center, and fulfillment node.
The GameStop store transformation would turn locations into verification centers where sellers can have items authenticated on the spot, then listed with a trust badge. GameStop staff already inspect and grade trading cards and hardware daily, providing the foundational capability. Cohen also sees livestream commerce as an underdeveloped lever, pushing eBay toward live-selling formats that could compete with Amazon's streaming strategy.
The bid reflects Cohen's pivot away from traditional video game retail toward nostalgia-driven, higher-margin merchandise. GameStop ended fiscal 2025 with net sales of $3.630 billion, down from $3.823 billion the prior year, while operating income rebounded to $232.1 million from a $26.2 million operating loss in 2024. Store closures accelerated throughout 2025 and into 2026 as the company trimmed its footprint from roughly 2,325 U.S. locations to under 1,700 by year-end.
Cohen's corporate experiments have been mixed. GameStop exited cryptocurrency in August 2023 and shuttered its NFT marketplace months later. A "Trade Anything Day" initiative, which let customers swap virtually any item for store credit, drew employee pushback but signaled Cohen's willingness to test unconventional revenue streams.
The takeover gambit carries real execution risk. Cohen is betting that his track record managing Chewy before taking GameStop's helm qualifies him to overhaul a 30-year-old marketplace giant. Investor Michael Burry, a GameStop shareholder, weighed in earlier this year, saying Cohen "has a crappy business, and he is milking it best he can while taking advantage of the meme stock phenomenon to raise cash and wait for an opportunity to make a big buy of a real growing cash cow business."
Author Emily Chen: "This is either the most audacious move Cohen has made yet or a last-ditch attempt to justify GameStop's existence by absorbing a platform with real cash flow."
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