23 ms·

GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

712 points by n1b0m 5mo ago

maerF0x0 5mo ago
As someone who's primarily used ebay to buy old NES et al cartridges, this makes sense to me. (No comment on the price being offered though)
TrackerFF 5mo ago
So they want to pay half of that with a meme stock?
pjc50 5mo ago
Important background: https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Announces-Long-Term-Performance-Award-for-Ryan-Cohen/default.aspx https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202... CEO gets paid "only if GameStop achieves a market capitalization of $20 billion." Buying a $55bn company would certainly achieve that quickly. I'm not sure how they'd manage that (buy with what? Memes?), other than the should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet.
- hdgvhicv 5mo ago
  Wouldn’t that debt knock down the market cap as much as the value Otherwise take out a $20b loan and put it in the bank. Assets increase $20b, job done.
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
  - lesuorac 5mo ago
    Well, his argument is that he can remove inefficiencies in the combined company. GME is ~12B, EBAY is ~46B (58 total) with net income of 0.4B and 2B (2.4 total). If he boosts profit by 1.2B then it's nearly a 50% increase and probably going to result in a more valuable combined company despite the debt.
    - repelsteeltje 5mo ago
      > Well, his argument is that he can remove inefficiencies in the combined company. Sigh. The synergy argument, once again. While historically most mergers don't work out particularly well, I'm absolutely sure this time will be different.
      - falcor84 5mo ago
        "How do you make money? Spinoffs, split-ups, liquidations, mergers and acquisitions." - Mario Gabelli Just sample from these with replacement sufficiently many times and you're all set. At the very least, you'll owe people so much money that they'll have a massive interest in helping you.
      - jamesfinlayson 5mo ago
        I've been told that Australian company Wesfarmers fanatically avoids synergies when acquiring companies so that if the time comes to cast it off, there's no painful separation of a bunch of shared systems/departments/real estate etc.
        repelsteeltje 5mo ago
        Not saying synergy is a dirty word, always. It's the assumption that there is a lot of overlap (which rarely materializes) and that assimilation or merging has no cost. In practice, company cultures are rarely aligned (the merger wasn't conjured by employees, they weren't even consulted) and frustrated talent leaves. Time is lost navel gazing. Synergy (i.e.: cost reduction) looks great in Q3 balance sheet, but in the mean time intrinsic company value has decreased. The long term prospect isn't so great.
        jamesfinlayson 4mo ago
        Oh agreed - I was at a company that was the result of two companies merging and while the reduced head count was an easy synergy (don't need two legal, HR, cyber-security etc teams), everything else was pretty slow.
  - sspiff 5mo ago
    There is precedent for this kind of trickery being played. For example, Honeywell acquired Garrett AiResearch, a well known manufacturer of turbochargers for combustion engines, through a series of mergers. Later on, it loaded them up with debt (over $1.5 billion, mostly asbestos related indemnity obligations from other parts of the business), before spinning them out as an independent entity again. Two years later, Garrett filed for bankruptcy claiming it was succumbing to the unsustainable debt burden placed upon it by its former owner.
    - stevefan1999 5mo ago
      So you mean...marrying someone but transfer all the personal debt to the others, then divorcing so that I have no responsibility whatsoever? Not even an obligation to settle for the debt just like disappeared through an expired relationship?
      - BigTuna 5mo ago
        Welcome to late stage capitalism
        chatmasta 5mo ago
        This is early 1990s capitalism.
        BigTuna 5mo ago
        1980s even. It takes a while to siphon off all the value built up by multiple generations.
        lanstin 5mo ago
        The hidden truth about economics in my lifetime.
      - nashashmi 5mo ago
        Is there a legal term for this kind of restructuring of debt?
  - ineedasername 5mo ago
    Depends on how market cap is defined for the purpose of the contract. Typical definition is just against floating shares in the market * share price. Debt doesn’t factor in at all except in so far as it will influence investor confidence -> share price. That said: conceptually it’s not an awful fit for GameStop. In so far as video games discs and cartridges were the main disposable belonging i had as a kid and the main target for new purchases, Funcoland was (later to become GameStop), if you squint your eyes, a brick & mortar eBay scoped to only video games. If you’d been an SV startup at the time pitching the eBay concept you could have said “it’s like funcoland, but online and for anything and also lets people sell peer to peer “
  - graemep 5mo ago
    They are paying half in GameStock equity. They will issue new shares so they will buy Ebay of $55bn, but add only $20bn debt. Its good for GameStock management who will end up running a much bigger business. https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Proposes-to-Acquire-eBay-at-125-00-Per-Share/ https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202... Game Stock management is essentially claiming that they can run Ebay better than the current management so Ebay shareholders will end up better off by selling to Game Stock: they get some cash and shares in a business that will be mostly a better run Ebay. Very possible bad for GameStock shareholders who will end up with a smaller stake in a bigger business.
    - eloisant 5mo ago
      It that's bad for GameStock shareholders, surely they'll vote against it?
      - brookst 5mo ago
        Do they get a vote?
    - 59percentmore 5mo ago
      It depends. If Gamestop is able to find the efficiencies that the CEO is claiming, EPS jumps between 50 and 100 percent. Gamestop shareholders get diluted down to owning a smaller piece of a much bigger earnings pie. That's if you don't engage in any conspiracy theories about how many shares retail traders really own (don't go down that rabbit hole). Suffice it to say, the Gamestop's price floor has gone up each time it's been diluted in the past few years. Perhaps lower highs, but higher lows. And a company that can afford to try a stunt like this.
      - graemep 5mo ago
        True, that is why I said "very possibly". The market seems mildly positive about i so far. its a big promise. Is Ebay really THAT badly run that they can find such efficiencies?
- fontain 5mo ago
  Cohen is already rich rich, his GameStop compensation doesn’t really matter much. The eBay acquisition could be a strategy to juice his compensation but I think it is much more likely he does believe that he can achieve his stated aims, which will financially benefit him much more in the long term.
  - ascorbic 5mo ago
    I'm not sure the fact that somebody is already rich rich would make them less likely to perform ethically dubious practices to juice their own compensation. In fact I'd say the opposite is more likely.
  - idiotsecant 5mo ago
    If there's anything rich people famously hate, it's making more money.
    - groundzeros2015 5mo ago
      Unlike poor people who are indifferent to money.
  - Forgeties79 5mo ago
    Few CEO’s in the US are rewarded for longterm thinking when there are unsustainable quarterly gains to be made. GameStop also has a strange history, especially the last decade, that no one could possibly describe as “cautious” or “planning longterm.” I also can’t name a single CEO who had the mentality of “I’m rich enough to make personal/financial sacrifices for the good of the company.” That’s simply not how things work. I’m sure an example exists but it would clearly be an exception to the rule.
    - dgellow 5mo ago
      Nintendo CEO cutting his salary in half to avoid firing employees https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-salary-to-prevent-layoffs-why-thats-uncommon.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-sal...
- SideQuark 5mo ago
  Market cap will price in the debt, as it always does. Empirical evidence (dig through Google scholar) finds that cash assets, debt, profits, settlements, and the like, all are reflected in market cap changes at over 99% accuracy (the 1% is from measurement noise, so it may well be 100%). Making debt of that form illegal would kill any company that needed money to stay afloat, such as during some emergency, or war, or COVID, or tons of events that companies regularly survive.
- bko 5mo ago
  > other than the should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet. This is silly. No different than buying a house w/ borrowed money based on using that house as collateral. Banks aren't stupid. If it's very likely to fail and the interest doesn't cover the risk, banks won't risk. There's typically no upside to banks. At best they get their interest and at worst they lose everything.
  - ZiiS 5mo ago
    It is different. You need somewhere to live. Buying a second home with what would presumably need to be at least a 90℅ mortgage is at best questionable.
    - glenngillen 5mo ago
      I think your example if proving their point: that's exactly what happens and is incredibly common.
  - hdgvhicv 5mo ago
    > Banks aren't stupid. If they can gamble with other people’s money then why won’t they. If they can get rid of those liabilities by offloading them in a hidden way why wouldn’t they. If it all collapses and the government bails Them out, oh well.
  - acdha 5mo ago
    > Banks aren't stupid. Even a cursory familiarity with the history of the industry shows both that this is untrue but also that it’s leaving out many of the core reasons why finance is regulated. Bankers do make mistakes, but also their focus is on what makes them a profit now rather than what’s good for their client or the country long term. The bank does not care if GameStop goes bust as long as that happens after the loans are repaid or, most likely, sold. None of the guys who sold incredibly dodgy mortgages—if you weren’t in the market in the late-2000s, they would literally let applicants pencil in their income and not check it—went to jail for packaging those mortgages up so many times removed that they couldn’t reliably prove the loan even existed and reselling them with inflated ratings, and absolutely none of them had to repay their bonuses. Once they found a buyer for an “AAA” derivative, foreclosure was a problem for the retirement fund left holding it after a couple of sales. That’s what I’d expect here, too: they’ll make some flashy announcements to juice share prices (“AI powered auctions paid in crypto!”) and sell that debt, spin whatever’s left into a subsidiary which splits off, and then profess complete surprise when that goes bankrupt.
- jjallen 5mo ago
  I’m disappointed and surprised you left out half of the conditions that grant him this compensation and only included one that suggests that all he has to do is buy a bigger company with GME stock: “ The award is divided into nine tranches that are eligible to vest only if the Company achieves both a “Market Capitalization Hurdle” and a corresponding “Cumulative Performance EBITDA Hurdle”.” This changes basically everything. He can’t just buy any bigger company. The company has to earn way more cash flow as well.
  - Aefiam 5mo ago
    It doesnt really change much, by buying a company its future ebitda will be included, it only delays the reward by some time. So yes he can just buy a bigger company
- jjallen 5mo ago
  I’m disappointed and surprised you left out half of the conditions that grant him this compensation. You only included the one that suggests that all he has to do is buy a bigger company with GME stock. It was literally the first paragraph of your link: “ The award is divided into nine tranches that are eligible to vest only if the Company achieves both a “Market Capitalization Hurdle” and a corresponding “Cumulative Performance EBITDA Hurdle”.” This changes basically everything. He can’t just buy any bigger company. The company has to earn way more cash flow, cumulatively, as well.
  - cj 5mo ago
    I was under the impression that it was either or, not both. Either reach market cap goal or EBITDA.
  - graemep 5mo ago
    The first two market cap hurdle is almost certain to be achieved, and the second should be easy (its less than current market cap plus value of new equity to be issued).
- sheepscreek 5mo ago
  Taking a $20b loan from TD Bank + sitting on $9b CASH + GameStop stock for the rest. They’ve made an interesting proposal around using 1600 GameStop locations for fulfilment. Smart if they can make it work. Update: Numbers still don’t add to $55b - I think there’s a $14b shortfall. Not sure about how they are planning to fund that.
  - bhouston 5mo ago
    > They’ve made an interesting proposal around using 1600 GameStop locations for fulfilment. Is that really an advantage? Fulfilment is always handled by a lot of places for the big e-retailers for returns, which is similar to what eBay needs for sellers. How much does Staples charge for its Amazon return fulfillment where you don't even need to wrap up the item? It is really popular: https://www.staples.ca/a/learn/amazon-returns-now-available-at-staples-canada-retail-stores https://www.staples.ca/a/learn/amazon-returns-now-available-... I question whether it is advantageous to use GameStop stores for this or just to piggy back on what Staples is already offering to Amazon and others for their returns? Fulfilling returns for Amazon isn't significantly different to shipping eBay orders.
    - noitpmeder 5mo ago
      My kneejerk is that most consumers these days expect delivery for items purchased online, and allowing them to pick up their items at a brick and mortar probably isn't the issue. Now, dropping off items you're selling? That probably removes a decent hurdle for many first-time/one-time users who aren't familiar with shipping (what box/label/insurance/padding/...).
      - bhouston 5mo ago
        > My kneejerk is that most consumers these days expect delivery for items purchased online 100%. > Now, dropping off items you're selling? This is what Staples is offering to Amazon but for returns - quite similar. And they could offer them to eBay as well I am sure. You do not need your own chain of brick and mortar stores to do this and I am sure the cost per drop off would be cheaper with Staples than your own chain that only serves you. GameStop is a game of constant pivots that sound good to its meme-believers that do not really work in the real-world.
- getnormality 5mo ago
  > the should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet. I agree it's weird but ultimately the check against dumb lending is natural consequences for the lender, right? If you ask me for billions in loans for your zero revenue company and I give it to you, whose problem is that but my own?
  - consp 5mo ago
    In the modern world if you are a bank you will be bailed out eventually, thus your problem becoming everyone's problem.
    - boringg 5mo ago
      Ah-hem SVB?
      - vallassy 5mo ago
        An outlier in historical terms (i.e. the last 20 years) https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list
        deleted 5mo ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 5mo ago
        [deleted]
      - matwood 5mo ago
        SVB was not bailed out. Depositors were made whole (as they should be), but shareholders were completely wiped out (as they should have been).
        boringg 5mo ago
        My point exactly.
- fasteo 5mo ago
  >>> should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet This is a basically a leveraged buyout (LBO). All private equity works this way. Yes, it should be illegal, or at least heavily limited. I highly recommend this book: "Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America"
  - elzbardico 5mo ago
    This book got a unfortunate title. Private Equity can be a completely legitimate activity. What it needs is some regulation on some underhanded financial tatics it uses, such as LBO.
    - Barbing 5mo ago
      Hilton is a good example, right? But vast majority of the time it’s bad?
      - akiselev 5mo ago
        The vast majority of the time, you don't hear about it at all. Leveraged buyouts and the monopolistic strategies like buying out all the private doctors or veterinarians in a region get all the negative press but they're a tiny fraction of private equity. The big money is in really boring industries like mining/oil/resource extraction, power plants, infrastructure, construction, and other industries that are predictable and in high demand everywhere. PE firms often get the best deals because they thrive on those kinds of connections and can offer up large amounts of capital on favorable terms in exchange for first dibs. The "rich get richer" is their primary strategy and it works without minmaxing exploitation because that's a bottom feeder strategy, not one that can guarantee steady returns on tens of billions of dollars.
  - triceratops 5mo ago
    Is it still "private equity" if a public company takes a loan to buy another public company?
    - 5mo ago
- rahimnathwani 5mo ago
  Whether the acquirer or target borrows the money, this would not allow to increase the market cap of the company. It would increase the enterprise value (because the debt allows you to make a bigger acquisition), but not the market cap.
- vmbm 5mo ago
  If the market is "efficient", then the debt should work against the market cap. For example if we assume a $50B offer at 50%/50% debt and stock, then we should expect the market cap to only increase by $25B. And for GME shareholders, they should expect their stock price to stay roughly the same because that $25B market cap would be offset by a corresponding increase in the number of shares. The debt would increase the enterprise value of the company, which is the more comprehensive metric to use when trying to value a company as it takes into account both debt obligations and cash on hand. Of course the market may move the price up or down based on how much they like the merger. If they think there is some synergy here, they may move things higher. If they think the debt is too burdensome or have other issues with it, they will move the price lower. But all things being equal, any market cap increase of a buyout should be offset by the dilution that was incurred to finance the deal. What looks like a "hack" here though, is that Cohen tied his incentive structure to market cap and not share price. The fact that his award is in the form of options and not RSU's does add some incentive for a higher share price, but at the end of the day, it looks like he can get 100% of his award by simply buying companies using dilutive stock issuance. Not sure how much the GME faithful appreciated that at the time of the vote. I think Elon did something similar in his incentive package.
- Nifty3929 5mo ago
  It is not at all clear to me why people get upset about using borrowed money on the balance sheet of the acquired company. Say company B wants to buy company A. Company A is worth $20B, but the buyer doesn't have that much, and the original owners/shareholders want to get paid. So Company A takes out a $20B loan, paying out the original owners, making that company worth $zero. Now Company B gets it - it's still worth zero because of the fat loan, but now Company B is the owner. I don't feel like anybody got taken advantage of in this financing model. In fact, this is pretty close to what happens in the US real estate market. When I buy a house I take out a loan against that house. It's non-recourse, so it's very much like the house borrowed the money, not me. In any case, I got the house with a lot less money than the purchase price. Sometimes nearly zero from me in fact. I do understand why people get angry about what often happens next - layoffs and such - but I think that's very independent of the financing used to purchase the company. The acquirer could pay all cash using money from it's own bank account, and then still lay a bunch of people off - and in fact that often happens.
- chrisss395 5mo ago
  Yes...but isn't his employment contract structured to incent this kind of move? His pay is 100% at-risk in the form of 170M+ stock options that only vest if he hits some astronomical targets. I'm just not sure his rationale is completely objective given such a structure...
  - conductr 5mo ago
    > I'm just not sure his rationale is completely objective given such a structure... Which is why the board would have to approve the deal and he can’t act alone on it. He was hired to create and execute the strategy including finding the target. The real question is, why did he get hired to do something anyone could have done?
vasco 5mo ago
The Gamestop CEO is an interesting character, he grew Chewy and sold it, did a massive play on Apple stock during the pandemic and used that to buy a 9% stake in Gamestop over time, rode the hype to accumulate $9B while turning the company around and closing stores that weren't profitable and making it a money making budiness again. And now they already own 5% of eBay on top. Along the way he says some ridiculous Trump stuff and wasted a bunch of time on NFTs but the eBay play seems interesting at least. It's one of the best internet soap operas to follow. For comparison AMC was put in the same "meme stock" bag at the time and you can see how they managed to ride the hype. So it's not just memes.
- Rekindle8090 5mo ago
  [dead]
- Eldt 5mo ago
  He's a meme trader manipulating retailer investors, following Elon's footsteps
  - memaw12341234 5mo ago
    those guys have a very strong track record of getting their way lately
    - deleted 4mo ago
      [deleted]
  - CWwdcdk7h 5mo ago
    I mean he pumped and dumped BBB, and those people (or should we call them apes?) still love this guy.
- dcminter 5mo ago
  I look forward to today's Money Stuff!
- turtlesdown11 5mo ago
robotswantdata 5mo ago
[dead]
orlp 5mo ago
GameStop doesn't have (even close to) $55.5B. Their offer from the letter is literally impossible: > Our offer is $125.00 per share, comprising 50% cash and 50% GameStop common stock Even if you magically included all existing GameStop stock in the offer, it still would not comprise 50% of $55.5B. EDIT: looks like it's not impossible and I misunderstood. It's a proposed change of leadership with a $25B injection of cash to sweeten the deal. GameStop would issue shares which would capture the original eBay value (since GameStop would own eBay after the trade), making that part a wash. At least assuming people owning eBay stock currently would value the combined company at at least the sum of their parts, which is a big if.
- ceejayoz 5mo ago
  Isn’t that just a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leveraged_buyout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leveraged_buyout ?
  - AureliusMA 5mo ago
    Yup.
  - croemer 5mo ago
    The stock part is more like a merger than a buyout.
  - sigmoid10 5mo ago
    That's just for the cash part. The stock part makes no sense. For this 50/50 deal to work in principle, they'd need to issue around a billion new shares, which would massively dilute the existing ~450M shares. So Ebay shareholders would suddenly own 70% of Gamestop after the deal. It's also highly questionable if investors actually believe the combined stock is worth that much, so the stock price would probably fall and turn those 70% into >90%. At this point it basically becomes a reverse acquisition plus a large loan for the final company from the cash part of the deal.
    - ryandamm 5mo ago
jofzar 5mo ago
I was seeing the news about this calling it GameStop eBay takeover and I assumed it was eBay buying GameStop and I was like, huh that doesn't really make sense for eBay to buy GameStop but maybe they want the physical locations? How the hell can GameStop buy eBay, this is insane.
- mrweasel 5mo ago
  The other way around made more sense to me as well. I don't see this going well for eBay, but I also don't entirely know how well their business is doing. Here local eBay "clones" aren't in a good place and have been left as ghost towns after Facebook Marketplace.
moomin 5mo ago
Very specific corners of the internet are losing their minds right now.
- fuzzfactor 5mo ago
  A low tide leaves very few boats afloat, but these are lighter-than-air craft.
  - i_think_so 5mo ago
    This very specific corner of the internet has no idea how your metaphor is supposed to work, which is why I like it so much.
maz1b 5mo ago
Not a headline I ever thought I would see. Kinda crazy how meme stocks and retail hype has led to this.
HelloUsername 5mo ago
Previous discussion: "GameStop Preparing Offer for eBay" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985271 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985271 68 comments
woodydesign 5mo ago
From storytelling to investor POV, does it a good story to frame this as entering the AI era through a digital service that everyone familiar with?
manwithnoplan 5mo ago
A lot of the comments here seem to assume that a smaller public company can’t acquire a larger one, which just isn’t true. A quick search for how leveraged acquisitions, stock-for-stock deals, financing commitments, or tender offers work would answer most of the objections. Is it too much to ask the Hacker News commentariat to do one quick search before collectively declaring that something they don’t understand is impossible?
- petesergeant 5mo ago
  > Is it too much to ask the Hacker News commentariat to do one quick search Are you new here?
- dgellow 5mo ago
  I see a single comment mentioning it is impossible. No sign of a collective declaration. I think you’re overreacting
  - manwithnoplan 5mo ago
    I think you are under reacting.
    - deleted 5mo ago
      [deleted]
- lijok 5mo ago
  There’s one comment as of the time of your post that makes this assumption - you could have replied to them directly.
  - manwithnoplan 5mo ago
    It is implicitly implied in many comments.
    - wwalexander 5mo ago
schnitzelstoat 5mo ago
I guess if people use eBay a lot to sell used games then there is something of an overlap there. Otherwise, it seems pretty weird.
- harvey9 5mo ago
  That sneaker company that pivoted to data centers set the 'weird' bar pretty high. GameStop has physical stores so could be a place to send, collect from or even verify high value eBay items.
  - fg137 5mo ago
    Based on my own experience with GameStop, that will convince me to stop using eBay completely.
    - reddalo 5mo ago
      I'd be sad because eBay works great (even if their software is old and would need a complete rewrite).
      - idiotsecant 5mo ago
        Why does it need a rewrite if it works great?
        reddalo 5mo ago
        Because it works great as a platform, and because I've been using it for 20 years. But for a new user, it looks completely messy, with pages that are vastly different from each other and many sections that look exactly as they were in the early 2000's.
        idiotsecant 5mo ago
        I'm not sure 'it looks like it did in 2000' is worth tearing it all down, starting over, and introducing new bugs. Sometimes things just work. Ebay is very functional for a huge amount of commerce. It loads reasonably quickly and is reasonably easy to navigate.
kome 5mo ago
ebay is still "old internet", and genuinely useful and well built. enshittification is incoming...
- consp 5mo ago
  For an old internet company they sure know how to enshittify global selling with their Global Shipping Program also know as Global Shitting Program.
- GaryBluto 5mo ago
  Have you used eBay in the last few years? It's awful for sellers and awful for buyers. This is coming from somebody who buys on eBay twice a month on average.
  - radlad 5mo ago
    What would make it better? My only complaint as a seller is fees. I have no complaints as a buyer. The best part is eBay works exactly the same as 10 years ago, as far as I can tell.
    - TheCondor 5mo ago
      I try not to use it and then something will come up and I use it. Could be my market, or who knows what but there seems to be more scams. It’s the only place someone can give you a fake tracking number (somehow people get these from UPS) get caught and other than a refund after weeks and a negative reputation ding, they get to keep on doing it. The fake tracking number scam has been going on for years too, it’s still happening. Permanently ban for people caught doing this, preferred shippers with eBay as a managed tracker or something like that.
      - radlad 5mo ago
        I have never had this happen, but I don't buy from first-time eBay sellers. There are definitely scams on there, but they seem to be "too good to be true" prices with 0 reviews on the seller. Surely you're not getting scammed by sellers with lots of reputational history? I actually am more nervous as a seller, as their buyer protection almost always sides with buyers, at least in the US (and the fee is astronomical.)
olalonde 5mo ago
"I like the stock" - GameStop
sschueller 5mo ago
Are there still large shorts on GameStop? If this goes through I assume it will wipe those out?
- fineIllregister 5mo ago
  No. Short interest is at 15% and cost to borrow is .36%.
bilekas 5mo ago
If they can do some accounting trickery to pull this off then they deserve it. Makes zero sense to me but I did not think GameStop had even close to that in assets.
- hdndjsbbs 5mo ago
  It's the leveraged buyout playbook. You buy a company and use its own assets to secure a loan. Then you "find efficiencies" (strip it for parts to pay yourself and the creditors).
  - 59percentmore 5mo ago
    In this case, if the deal goes through at the price given, eBay's liquid assets are untouched. The cash portion is paid out entirely through the loan and Gamestop's cash.
    - CWwdcdk7h 5mo ago
      > $20 billion in debt financing This debt will carried by company resulting from merge. It might be not classic leveraged buyout but if they have any trouble with repaying it, it will end in asset liquidation all the same.
      - 59percentmore 5mo ago
        That's true. But they also have a $6 billion cash cushion to try to service that debt.
    - hdndjsbbs 5mo ago
      Yes, the loan is the leverage. It's secured against the assets of eBay. If the acquisition fails to produce efficiencies the resulting company has a bunch of extra, arguably unnecessary debt from the acquisition that a free-standing eBay wouldn't have.
      - 59percentmore 5mo ago
wigster 5mo ago
i don't understand why ebay looks SO terrible. It seems like some broken website where css failed to load.
techterrier 5mo ago
is this for real? Or just to get gamestonks back into the news for another whirl on the wheel of meme?
- Ekaros 5mo ago
  They have managed to raise lot of money and don't have any proper ideas what to use it for. So this might not be worst possible way.
seydor 5mo ago
I believe ebay should put itself up for sale on ebay instead.
- TonyTrapp 5mo ago
  Auction or "buy now" with price suggestion?
  - mghackerlady 5mo ago
    I once saw a pair of "very used" ready-to-rumble promotional boxers for bidding at $99 or buy it now for $1300
- traderj0e 5mo ago
  GameStop would buy it and then not even pay, then eBay would be like wtf now I have to relist myself
- itomato 5mo ago
  Oh, the GMV bump would mean a nice bonus
rasz 5mo ago
Reminds me of Sierra On-Line being acquired by CUCk International in 1996.
- sgt 5mo ago
  That was a sad story. Al Lowe talked about it a couple of years ago on a German podcast.
oybng 5mo ago
With the state ebay is in, I'd welcome anyone else to run it
- jollyllama 5mo ago
  I know what you mean, but I highly suspect there's room for it to get worse.
  - traderj0e 5mo ago
    eBay is too easy to take for granted if you've never tried buying or selling things on FB Marketplace or Craigslist. Having people over the internet trade things with minimal middleman is a really hard problem, and someone will always get scammed somewhere.
ulfw 5mo ago
Every day our world is becoming just that tiny little bit more stupid
- kibwen 5mo ago
  Not true, on many days it becomes enormously more stupid.
adam_patarino 5mo ago
Diamond hands?
Frieren 5mo ago
Most business nowadays is related to financial transactions instead of building new products or services The real economy seems to be burning but Wallstreet acts as if it didn't matter.
- StilesCrisis 5mo ago
  Data center build-outs and AI investments are huge. They make the combined numbers look almost normal, but if you're not in the data-center construction business, the US is already in a recession.
aykutseker 5mo ago
2021: a Reddit short squeeze kept GameStop from going under. 2026: GameStop is bidding $55B for eBay, a company 4x its size. If it lands, this might be the strangest full circle moment public markets have ever produced.
- doginasuit 5mo ago
  Is it still riding the meme stock wave or has GameStop made a turnaround?
  - trillic 5mo ago
    Liquid Assets: May 2020: $570.3 million Jan 2026: $9.013 billion
    - SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
      Who would down vote this? It’s true. Can people here really not keep their emotions in check enough to admit clearly obvious facts?
      - ferfumarma 5mo ago
        The entire conventional zeitgeist is denying plain truths that hurt your self image. It seems consistent that the same thing would happen here.
        deleted 5mo ago
        [deleted]
      - turtlesdown11 5mo ago
        > Who would down vote this? It’s true. It's not an answer to the question of a turnaround, and therefore low quality information? How much you have in assets does not correlate with the ongoing success of the business. Examining the day to day business of Gamestop and excluding the memestock shenanigans leaves a very bad business. The core business has declining revenue - net sales 2016 $8.6b, 2025 $3.5b and still in decline. Cash flow from operations also continues to shrink. Store footprint has shrunk. The underlying business stinks, even if they made a ton of money selling stock, they haven't done anything significant to halt the spiral. To the poster below asking if I'm drunk. Please provide some sort of revenue citation to 18x? https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/gme/revenue/ https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/gme/revenue/
pfdietz 5mo ago
Is this going to turn Gamestop stores into something like those "sell it on Ebay" stores?
- parrellel 5mo ago
  No, its going to give the CEO and some shareholders a few billion and destroy eBay. Because we can't have nice things. I am so painfully sick of this.
  - threetonesun 5mo ago
    eBay isn't doing itself any favors these days, the site seems to have issues on a regular basis and they're heavily promoting collectible/gambling garbage on the site. If anything eBay and GameStop seem perfect for each other.
    - traderj0e 5mo ago
      There's tons of stuff I wanted or needed that was easiest to find on eBay. And I also sold old things there. Idk idc what the market for anime trading cards looks like.
    - kjs3 5mo ago
      Hadn't noticed gambling...they keep shoving car parts into everything I look for. And their insipid live auction wannabe QVC Network nonsense.
oompydoompy74 5mo ago
Can we please not? eBay is one of the few places I still enjoy on the web.
JumpCrisscross 5mo ago
The offer letter: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326380/000119312526202468/d138475dex991.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326380/000119312526...
blks 5mo ago
Famous grifter Ryan Cohen is back in business. Time to collect more money from reddit
- BoggleOhYeah 5mo ago
  Why not? They haven’t left him even as he’s done little but dilute them to stockpile cash.
ramon156 5mo ago
Wonder what Shkreli thinks of this.
parrellel 5mo ago
I was just thinking how nice it was to still get used stuff on eBay and now Mr. McMemeStock is going to kill it to extract a few billion for himself. Yay.
avonmach 5mo ago
GameStop is going to acquire BestBuy
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
Essentialhoodie 5mo ago
[dead]
Forgeties79 5mo ago
GameStop is not a serious company and I can’t believe some people still buy in to their hype nonsense.
throwaway2037 5mo ago
There is no way that this deal will go through. However, it is good publicity stunt! Their offer is only 20% above the current share price, and they don't have nearly enough funding to complete the transaction. I would love to know what rate TD Securities is willing to lend? What would be the spread over 3month USD LIBOR? I assume 300-500 bps.
wclockdash 5mo ago
Great discussion. Curious what others think about the intersection of productivity and browser tooling here.
snitty 5mo ago
>55.5B Is this offer on a timer?
freakynit 5mo ago
[flagged]
- VoidWhisperer 5mo ago
  From a quick glance, the headline text is weirdly stretched on mobile, unless that is how it is supposed to be with that font
  - freakynit 5mo ago
    Markdown to html parser issue.. will fix.. The reports are originally generated in markdown format. Thanks..
bhouston 5mo ago
This is just a leverage buyout and it will likely result in the slow death of both parties while there is value extraction for those in control. Think Sears, Toys R US and similar. The CEO has a very specific deal where he gets paid significant compensation for specific valuations, which this is likely to achieve. That is value extraction at the cost of shareholders who will be on the hook for the leveraged loan and which will likely wipe them all out over time.
- v4dm 5mo ago
  Gets paid compensation in stock. So if shareholders lose value, he does too.
  - ball_of_lint 5mo ago
    Not exactly, https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Announces-Long-Term-Performance-Award-for-Ryan-Cohen/default.aspx https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202... He has to hit both the market cap and EBITDA for each tranche of his compensation plan to vest. He could do this by growing the core business, or by doing a merger like the proposed eBay one. Even if such a merger was very dilutive, even value destroying, it could help him vest a tranche he otherwise would not, for more value than the dilution reduces his position. To be absolutely clear, I hope+think in practice that he is aligned with shareholders, especially given that the market cap restrictions appear much easier to hit than the EBITDA ones, but it's important to be precise because there's so much misinformation going around.
    - v4dm 4mo ago
      Do you understand that these shares are not awarded, though? He has to BUY them, so if they are worthless, his comp will be too.
    - 59percentmore 5mo ago
      Well, how much more value? It seems like an awful lot of work to make thousands, if not millions, of shareholders very angry with you, if he's just adding cents-per-dollar to his net worth. I'm not saying that that isn't his aim, and I've definitely considered that a Vader Imposition is in play. But it seems like there are easier ways to make that kind of money without becoming Public Enemy #1, smack-dab in the middle of the "eat the rich" zeitgeist.
teknologist 5mo ago
Is eBay just a hive of scams now? Try searching for a Mac Studio with 512gb of RAM for example. I know it's a highly sought after item, but there are so many sellers with 0 reviews supposedly selling these at suspiciously low prices. What's going on here?
- jakemauer 5mo ago
  Same thing if you search for a PS5 Pro. And I have no idea how these aren’t taken down.
- cdaringe 5mo ago
  I bought some dope weight lifting shoes last week. 46 bucks after shipping, 175 new. I’m pretty stoked on that. I was looking for a 3090 recently too and i did see the 0 rep sellers with buy it nows 10% under market value. That was a little sus. Nonetheless https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?id=4210#section1 https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee... is a thing?
zx8080 5mo ago
So their crypto investment did not work out? Who would have thought! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/gamestop-to-borrow-1-3-billion-to-fund-bitcoin-buying-spree https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/gamestop-...
- Ritewut 5mo ago
  Their bitcoin investment is what kept them profitable at times. Same as Tesla.
  - ball_of_lint 5mo ago
    They can't include it in EBITDA
- v4dm 5mo ago
  It did, actually!
giancarlostoro 5mo ago
The original shorting of GameStop back in 2021 gave them a bit of a boost back into the green. While people were doing the GME to the moon, GameStop made more shares to sell, and paid off a bit of its debts, I think it made about a billion dollars in profit, they're still struggling, but it helped prolong their life. A friend of mine also pointed out and this made it click for me that it makes 100% sense, GameStop is setup as a legal pawnshop in every state. So a pawnshop buying out eBay makes insane sense. This merger in theory could be good for both eBay and GameStop if they don't mess it up. Imagine being able to list your eBay items locally without having to have people needing to come to your house, or better yet, getting a cut of what you wanted up front since they're basically a pawn shop, and then they list it on eBay and turn a bit of a profit with a local pickup option available. I could see this working out decently, assuming the CEO of GameStop doesn't mess it up completely.
- jnellis 5mo ago
  Was this not lampooned directly in "40 Year Old Virgin" where a young Jonah Hill tries to buy some disco boots at an ebay store but can't because you have to go through the website.
  - radlad 5mo ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxRg5I7r5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxRg5I7r5s
- dgellow 5mo ago
  I thought the point of eBay was to get rid of that middleman. Wouldn’t that be something eBay would have done at some point if they wanted to own a pawnshop? Not saying that cannot work but that doesn’t sound like a genius idea
  - metalliqaz 5mo ago
    Yes, exactly. In fact there were some ebay "helper" companies that made a go of it in the early 2000's. They went out of business because it doesn't add enough value. USPS created Media Mail and flat rate boxes, and UPS stores are found in nearly every community. They handle the hard part (shipping) well enough. The only thing I can think of is Gamestop positioning to become a clearing house for fan swag or gaming items the way Woot is for Amazon overstock.
wnevets 5mo ago
They're gonna have to sell ALOT of their NFT power packs
Iolaum 5mo ago
Many people noticed the math doesn't add up, e.g. in the CEO's interview here [0]. Am wondering if they are betting on the stock going up because of the news so they would then be able to fund the deal. [0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-ceos-awkward-interview-after-billion-ebay-offer-2026-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-ceos-awkward-interv...
- ball_of_lint 5mo ago
  I think Ryan handled that badly because he didn't believe the question was serious. They're offering 50% cash and 50% stock. At an eBay valuation of 56B: 20B of cash will come from their creditor, TD Bank. 8B will come from GameStop itself. 28B will come in the form of stock from the resulting entity, which will own eBay and presumably have a valuation north of 56B. The resulting entity may end up having 50% or more of it's equity allocated to the existing eBay shareholders. This is normal for a M&A where a smaller company buys a larger one.
  - fragmede 5mo ago
    "Normal" for M&A, and if you drink enough finance kool-aid it even makes sense, but then you step back, and go wait, no it doesn't!
    - ball_of_lint 5mo ago
      Does it make more sense to you phrased as "GameStop offers to purchase controlling 50% of eBay for $28B" ?
      - fragmede 5mo ago
        The problem is it does!
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
JohnFen 5mo ago
Gamestop is one of the companies that I refuse to do business with. eBay is a company that I am reluctant about, but use anyway. If this goes through, that will be the final straw that gets me to stop using eBay entirely. That would probably be for the best.
- ahaferburg 5mo ago
  There is no valuable information in that comment.
- nazgulsenpai 5mo ago
  Why do you refuse to do business with GameStop?
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
- ferfumarma 5mo ago
  How come?
- rbtprograms 5mo ago
  its a fun place to buy games though
octaane 5mo ago
Long-time ebay seller here. I'm seeing comments floating towards the top that are essentially positing that the physical GameStop locations can be used as hubs where people can buy or sell their stuff in general (especially items that are 'pick-up only'). A pawn shop, basically. Thing is, GameStop is, well, for videogames and videogame paraphernalia. It's not a general store. Doing this would turn them into a thrift shop, not a pawn shop, as people are trying to offload their carpets, desks, etc - bulky stuff. I don't think this makes sense. This does make sense when you consider the collectable market, another domain I'm involved in. Trading card games, specifically pokemon, have exploded over the last 5 years. GameStop is making a killing off of buying, selling, and grading these cards. Ebay is the primary marketplace to buy and sell those cards. There's also tax free havens ("Vaults") offered by multiple companies, grading service passthroughs, and scalping offered through ebay too. Viewed through the above lens, that's what's prompting this offer, I think.
- testudovictoria 5mo ago
  I think a lot of people are missing that eBay bought TCG Player back in 2022. This would fold the TCG Player brand into GameStop. Many (most?) local game stores list their inventory on TCG Player. In addition to the physical stores themselves, GameStop would have their hand in nearly every digital trading card transaction. GameStop would own the TGC Player warehouses and inventory.
  - wocram 5mo ago
    Tcgplayer is mostly a marketplace, I don't think physical presence does anything for them.
- dgellow 5mo ago
  Numbers I see for GameStop collectibles revenue FY2024: $718 million FY2025: $1.06 billion
randusername 5mo ago
Man the business school case-studies must be getting stranger and stranger by the day. What's the headline for this one?
elzbardico 5mo ago
How the fuck such a thing could happen in a sane world?
- turtlesdown11 5mo ago
  Anyone can offer to buy a business, I'm sending in a competing offer based on my internal valuation of my Schrute Buck holdings.
mobeigi 5mo ago
This was not on my bingo card. Not sure why eBay would take this personally. They've had a solid couple of years and there is room to grow. Gamestop on the other hand I'm not sure will exist in 10 years.
iwontberude 5mo ago
Please someone block this, they are going to ruin eBay.
- protocolture 5mo ago
  ebay cant get too much worse.
post-it 5mo ago
Everyone is taking this too far at face value. The purpose of this announcement is to pump GME stock.
- IAmGraydon 5mo ago
  Well it doesn't seem to be working.
toomanyrichies 5mo ago
https://archive.ph/CeCxv https://archive.ph/CeCxv
throwaway5752 5mo ago
The sad thing is it could succeed. This is exactly how Putin put the apparatuses of Russia into the hands of his allies. I'm sure GME will get administration support, any white knights will get Netflix treatment from the FTC. Cohen, as a loyal MAGA supporter, would then use Ebay cash to support Trump aligned groups.
kjs3 5mo ago
If it means eBay stops front-loading every search I make with car parts in thier latest market 'pivot' I'm for it. They can dispense with shoving the tacky 'live auction' stuff and constant 'are you sure you don't want to sell something', even better.
qzgrid37 5mo ago
[dead]
TheMagicHorsey 5mo ago
Is it just me being ignorant and crazy, or does it make more sense for EBay to take over Gamestop, rather than vice versa?
bronlund 5mo ago
I learned to programmed BASIC on paper long before I owned a computer. I knew I was going to get one though.
AdmiralAsshat 5mo ago
CNBC Interview with Ryan Cohen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E
- elAhmo 5mo ago
  This was so hard to watch. "Half stock, half cash" is such an insane shallow level of detail provided for a 55.5 billion takeover.
- pesus 5mo ago
  I see praise on Reddit (by GME stockholders, of course) saying that this makes him appear like some tough rebel standing up against the evil mainstream media... but I'm really not seeing it. To me it seems like a very tired (inebriated?) guy in a leather jacket who can't comprehend or answer a very basic question. Is this what passes for being a good CEO these days? I'd expect them to be able to at least come up with a vague response instead of claiming they can't comprehend that one number is bigger than the other.
  - TrackerFF 5mo ago
    The company (stock) subs are always echo chambers of the worst kind, bordering straight up cults. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) being one of the worst / most hilarious ones.
  - not_a_bot_4sho 5mo ago
    I don't know what I was expecting but I didn't walk away from that with any confidence in Ryan's abilities.
cwoolfe 5mo ago
I've been with eBay since 2006 and have been consistently disappointed with their consistent failure to innovate. They need some inspired leadership.
itomato 5mo ago
Your move, Jamie
vladmk 5mo ago
If they can do it, then I can do it. Why not? Making the same bid with made up money
- SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
  Do you have 9 billion in cash? Or are you as clueless as others about Gamestop from 2022 on?
  - vladmk 4mo ago
    Definitely clueless - I’m not a genius like you who takes jokes seriously
yalogin 5mo ago
Not sure where the synergy is except that both sell used stuff. For their market shipping speed doesn’t matter and so their large store foot print is not useful either. This is just a play to become more meaningful and to have actual revenue.
nektro 5mo ago
when i saw this headline i expected it to be the other way around
kortilla 5mo ago
“Half cash, half stock.”
sakopov 5mo ago
GameStop CEO was on CNBC and acted like a total dick the entire time after they asked him how financing would work for this deal [1]. It appears that he's upset that Squawk Box previously stated that GameStop is a bankrupt meme stock. This is probably one of the funniest CNBC interviews I've seen. [1] https://youtu.be/Bmj2PaxX24E https://youtu.be/Bmj2PaxX24E
- SigmundA 5mo ago
  I mean its on the website...
- potsandpans 5mo ago
  I have to imagine that this performance was intentional and this guy is not just out of his mind. Just find it difficult to imagine anything outside of market manipulation: either an eBay pump and dump scheme, or collusion to get investors to sell as the inflation comes down so activists can pick up more.
  - Forgeties79 5mo ago
    I did some digging today and learned that he currently takes no salary and stands to make an unbelievable amount of money if he hits certain (pretty unreasonable apparently) benchmarks. I think it was $35billion. My very armchair guess here is that he’s just trying something incredibly loud, brazen, and ambitious because at this point what else can you do? They’ve been falling apart for years, the business has not turned around at all even after the wildly inflated shares they sold to get some liquidity. He’s already rich and GameStop is falling apart, so really what’s the risk to him if it all goes under? May as well try a moonshot and move on. It’s not like anyone will hold him accountable for failing to turn around a ship that was already deemed sinking many years ago.
    - potsandpans 5mo ago
      Could be. But he has to secure board approval for doing something like this. So he apparently was able to convince the GameStop bod that this is a reasonable play. One has to wonder if there's an unstated interested party ready to back the deal.
tcp_handshaker 5mo ago
"He doesn't understand your question, CNBC" - https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1t3m56f/he_doesnt_understand_your_question_cnbc/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1t3m56f/he_...
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
kadomony 5mo ago
Shocked that they didn't just offer eBay $2 like they did for literally everything I brought to trade in.
whatever1 5mo ago
Do they have the cash to buy them ? If not, why should we provide the limited liquidity that our banks have to finance this? This logic should apply to all corporate acquisitions. You want to buy another company? Use your own cash and equity. No need for us to be exposed to your risk. This will also reduce the predatory private equity takeovers.
nateburke 5mo ago
Is this LBO a ridiculous enough of a proposition that you are going to email your senator and or representatives to complain about LBO loopholes in corporate finance law? I didn't think so. I wish them well!
blobbers 5mo ago
Anyone who is interested in how this sort of thing could work, or interested in how it has worked, could read the book "Barbarians at the Gate". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarians_at_the_Gate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarians_at_the_Gate) This sort of acquisition is typically called an LBO or Leveraged Buy Out. The story gets into the details of key figures involved, including Henry Kravis who people today would better know for his private equity firm KKR. Basic formula is raise cash using junk bonds, buy company, fix up company or kill off costs, use money company earns to pay debt, sell company. Since you have leveraged, your payout can be large. It's a similar style financing activity to a house flipper. example: buy house for 1M, but pay $200K + 800K debt (mortgage). Fix up house, sell for $1.2M. Pay off $800K debt. You're left with $400K, or 100% return!
- dgellow 5mo ago
  Minus fixing + selling costs
  - blobbers 4mo ago
    Yep! Always helps when you have sweat equity or some clever idea. LBOs can have other formats. Take Debt, assign debt to part of the company, auction off arms, legs, kidneys of company to pay off debt... you're left with a shell of your former company but a boatload of cash to pay off the debt and everyone gets their bonuses. Unfortunately a lot of LBOs tend to result in job cuts. The Twitter deal was a bit of that sort of thing, and we all see where that went.
deferredgrant 5mo ago
[flagged]
rayiner 5mo ago
…how does GameStop have $55 billion?
morpheos137 5mo ago
Seems like a sign of the apocalypse.
jollymonATX 5mo ago
This will be the end of ebay most likely if it goes through. Not right off the bat, but eventually. Just a hunch.

712 points by n1b0m 5mo ago

As someone who's primarily used ebay to buy old NES et al cartridges, this makes sense to me. (No comment on the price being offered though)

TrackerFF 5mo ago

So they want to pay half of that with a meme stock?

pjc50 5mo ago

Important background: https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Announces-Long-Term-Performance-Award-for-Ryan-Cohen/default.aspx https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202... CEO gets paid "only if GameStop achieves a market capitalization of $20 billion." Buying a $55bn company would certainly achieve that quickly. I'm not sure how they'd manage that (buy with what? Memes?), other than the should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet.

hdgvhicv 5mo ago
Wouldn’t that debt knock down the market cap as much as the value Otherwise take out a $20b loan and put it in the bank. Assets increase $20b, job done.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- lesuorac 5mo ago
  Well, his argument is that he can remove inefficiencies in the combined company. GME is ~12B, EBAY is ~46B (58 total) with net income of 0.4B and 2B (2.4 total). If he boosts profit by 1.2B then it's nearly a 50% increase and probably going to result in a more valuable combined company despite the debt.
  - repelsteeltje 5mo ago
    > Well, his argument is that he can remove inefficiencies in the combined company. Sigh. The synergy argument, once again. While historically most mergers don't work out particularly well, I'm absolutely sure this time will be different.
    - falcor84 5mo ago
      "How do you make money? Spinoffs, split-ups, liquidations, mergers and acquisitions." - Mario Gabelli Just sample from these with replacement sufficiently many times and you're all set. At the very least, you'll owe people so much money that they'll have a massive interest in helping you.
    - jamesfinlayson 5mo ago
      I've been told that Australian company Wesfarmers fanatically avoids synergies when acquiring companies so that if the time comes to cast it off, there's no painful separation of a bunch of shared systems/departments/real estate etc.
      - repelsteeltje 5mo ago
        Not saying synergy is a dirty word, always. It's the assumption that there is a lot of overlap (which rarely materializes) and that assimilation or merging has no cost. In practice, company cultures are rarely aligned (the merger wasn't conjured by employees, they weren't even consulted) and frustrated talent leaves. Time is lost navel gazing. Synergy (i.e.: cost reduction) looks great in Q3 balance sheet, but in the mean time intrinsic company value has decreased. The long term prospect isn't so great.
        jamesfinlayson 4mo ago
        Oh agreed - I was at a company that was the result of two companies merging and while the reduced head count was an easy synergy (don't need two legal, HR, cyber-security etc teams), everything else was pretty slow.
- sspiff 5mo ago
  There is precedent for this kind of trickery being played. For example, Honeywell acquired Garrett AiResearch, a well known manufacturer of turbochargers for combustion engines, through a series of mergers. Later on, it loaded them up with debt (over $1.5 billion, mostly asbestos related indemnity obligations from other parts of the business), before spinning them out as an independent entity again. Two years later, Garrett filed for bankruptcy claiming it was succumbing to the unsustainable debt burden placed upon it by its former owner.
  - stevefan1999 5mo ago
    So you mean...marrying someone but transfer all the personal debt to the others, then divorcing so that I have no responsibility whatsoever? Not even an obligation to settle for the debt just like disappeared through an expired relationship?
    - BigTuna 5mo ago
      Welcome to late stage capitalism
      - chatmasta 5mo ago
        This is early 1990s capitalism.
        BigTuna 5mo ago
        1980s even. It takes a while to siphon off all the value built up by multiple generations.
        lanstin 5mo ago
        The hidden truth about economics in my lifetime.
    - nashashmi 5mo ago
      Is there a legal term for this kind of restructuring of debt?
- ineedasername 5mo ago
  Depends on how market cap is defined for the purpose of the contract. Typical definition is just against floating shares in the market * share price. Debt doesn’t factor in at all except in so far as it will influence investor confidence -> share price. That said: conceptually it’s not an awful fit for GameStop. In so far as video games discs and cartridges were the main disposable belonging i had as a kid and the main target for new purchases, Funcoland was (later to become GameStop), if you squint your eyes, a brick & mortar eBay scoped to only video games. If you’d been an SV startup at the time pitching the eBay concept you could have said “it’s like funcoland, but online and for anything and also lets people sell peer to peer “
- graemep 5mo ago
  They are paying half in GameStock equity. They will issue new shares so they will buy Ebay of $55bn, but add only $20bn debt. Its good for GameStock management who will end up running a much bigger business. https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Proposes-to-Acquire-eBay-at-125-00-Per-Share/ https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202... Game Stock management is essentially claiming that they can run Ebay better than the current management so Ebay shareholders will end up better off by selling to Game Stock: they get some cash and shares in a business that will be mostly a better run Ebay. Very possible bad for GameStock shareholders who will end up with a smaller stake in a bigger business.
  - eloisant 5mo ago
    It that's bad for GameStock shareholders, surely they'll vote against it?
    - brookst 5mo ago
      Do they get a vote?
  - 59percentmore 5mo ago
    It depends. If Gamestop is able to find the efficiencies that the CEO is claiming, EPS jumps between 50 and 100 percent. Gamestop shareholders get diluted down to owning a smaller piece of a much bigger earnings pie. That's if you don't engage in any conspiracy theories about how many shares retail traders really own (don't go down that rabbit hole). Suffice it to say, the Gamestop's price floor has gone up each time it's been diluted in the past few years. Perhaps lower highs, but higher lows. And a company that can afford to try a stunt like this.
    - graemep 5mo ago
      True, that is why I said "very possibly". The market seems mildly positive about i so far. its a big promise. Is Ebay really THAT badly run that they can find such efficiencies?
fontain 5mo ago
Cohen is already rich rich, his GameStop compensation doesn’t really matter much. The eBay acquisition could be a strategy to juice his compensation but I think it is much more likely he does believe that he can achieve his stated aims, which will financially benefit him much more in the long term.
- ascorbic 5mo ago
  I'm not sure the fact that somebody is already rich rich would make them less likely to perform ethically dubious practices to juice their own compensation. In fact I'd say the opposite is more likely.
- idiotsecant 5mo ago
  If there's anything rich people famously hate, it's making more money.
  - groundzeros2015 5mo ago
    Unlike poor people who are indifferent to money.
- Forgeties79 5mo ago
  Few CEO’s in the US are rewarded for longterm thinking when there are unsustainable quarterly gains to be made. GameStop also has a strange history, especially the last decade, that no one could possibly describe as “cautious” or “planning longterm.” I also can’t name a single CEO who had the mentality of “I’m rich enough to make personal/financial sacrifices for the good of the company.” That’s simply not how things work. I’m sure an example exists but it would clearly be an exception to the rule.
  - dgellow 5mo ago
    Nintendo CEO cutting his salary in half to avoid firing employees https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-salary-to-prevent-layoffs-why-thats-uncommon.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-sal...
SideQuark 5mo ago
Market cap will price in the debt, as it always does. Empirical evidence (dig through Google scholar) finds that cash assets, debt, profits, settlements, and the like, all are reflected in market cap changes at over 99% accuracy (the 1% is from measurement noise, so it may well be 100%). Making debt of that form illegal would kill any company that needed money to stay afloat, such as during some emergency, or war, or COVID, or tons of events that companies regularly survive.
bko 5mo ago
> other than the should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet. This is silly. No different than buying a house w/ borrowed money based on using that house as collateral. Banks aren't stupid. If it's very likely to fail and the interest doesn't cover the risk, banks won't risk. There's typically no upside to banks. At best they get their interest and at worst they lose everything.
- ZiiS 5mo ago
  It is different. You need somewhere to live. Buying a second home with what would presumably need to be at least a 90℅ mortgage is at best questionable.
  - glenngillen 5mo ago
    I think your example if proving their point: that's exactly what happens and is incredibly common.
- hdgvhicv 5mo ago
  > Banks aren't stupid. If they can gamble with other people’s money then why won’t they. If they can get rid of those liabilities by offloading them in a hidden way why wouldn’t they. If it all collapses and the government bails Them out, oh well.
- acdha 5mo ago
  > Banks aren't stupid. Even a cursory familiarity with the history of the industry shows both that this is untrue but also that it’s leaving out many of the core reasons why finance is regulated. Bankers do make mistakes, but also their focus is on what makes them a profit now rather than what’s good for their client or the country long term. The bank does not care if GameStop goes bust as long as that happens after the loans are repaid or, most likely, sold. None of the guys who sold incredibly dodgy mortgages—if you weren’t in the market in the late-2000s, they would literally let applicants pencil in their income and not check it—went to jail for packaging those mortgages up so many times removed that they couldn’t reliably prove the loan even existed and reselling them with inflated ratings, and absolutely none of them had to repay their bonuses. Once they found a buyer for an “AAA” derivative, foreclosure was a problem for the retirement fund left holding it after a couple of sales. That’s what I’d expect here, too: they’ll make some flashy announcements to juice share prices (“AI powered auctions paid in crypto!”) and sell that debt, spin whatever’s left into a subsidiary which splits off, and then profess complete surprise when that goes bankrupt.
jjallen 5mo ago
I’m disappointed and surprised you left out half of the conditions that grant him this compensation and only included one that suggests that all he has to do is buy a bigger company with GME stock: “ The award is divided into nine tranches that are eligible to vest only if the Company achieves both a “Market Capitalization Hurdle” and a corresponding “Cumulative Performance EBITDA Hurdle”.” This changes basically everything. He can’t just buy any bigger company. The company has to earn way more cash flow as well.
- Aefiam 5mo ago
  It doesnt really change much, by buying a company its future ebitda will be included, it only delays the reward by some time. So yes he can just buy a bigger company
jjallen 5mo ago
I’m disappointed and surprised you left out half of the conditions that grant him this compensation. You only included the one that suggests that all he has to do is buy a bigger company with GME stock. It was literally the first paragraph of your link: “ The award is divided into nine tranches that are eligible to vest only if the Company achieves both a “Market Capitalization Hurdle” and a corresponding “Cumulative Performance EBITDA Hurdle”.” This changes basically everything. He can’t just buy any bigger company. The company has to earn way more cash flow, cumulatively, as well.
- cj 5mo ago
  I was under the impression that it was either or, not both. Either reach market cap goal or EBITDA.
- graemep 5mo ago
  The first two market cap hurdle is almost certain to be achieved, and the second should be easy (its less than current market cap plus value of new equity to be issued).
sheepscreek 5mo ago
Taking a $20b loan from TD Bank + sitting on $9b CASH + GameStop stock for the rest. They’ve made an interesting proposal around using 1600 GameStop locations for fulfilment. Smart if they can make it work. Update: Numbers still don’t add to $55b - I think there’s a $14b shortfall. Not sure about how they are planning to fund that.
- bhouston 5mo ago
  > They’ve made an interesting proposal around using 1600 GameStop locations for fulfilment. Is that really an advantage? Fulfilment is always handled by a lot of places for the big e-retailers for returns, which is similar to what eBay needs for sellers. How much does Staples charge for its Amazon return fulfillment where you don't even need to wrap up the item? It is really popular: https://www.staples.ca/a/learn/amazon-returns-now-available-at-staples-canada-retail-stores https://www.staples.ca/a/learn/amazon-returns-now-available-... I question whether it is advantageous to use GameStop stores for this or just to piggy back on what Staples is already offering to Amazon and others for their returns? Fulfilling returns for Amazon isn't significantly different to shipping eBay orders.
  - noitpmeder 5mo ago
    My kneejerk is that most consumers these days expect delivery for items purchased online, and allowing them to pick up their items at a brick and mortar probably isn't the issue. Now, dropping off items you're selling? That probably removes a decent hurdle for many first-time/one-time users who aren't familiar with shipping (what box/label/insurance/padding/...).
    - bhouston 5mo ago
      > My kneejerk is that most consumers these days expect delivery for items purchased online 100%. > Now, dropping off items you're selling? This is what Staples is offering to Amazon but for returns - quite similar. And they could offer them to eBay as well I am sure. You do not need your own chain of brick and mortar stores to do this and I am sure the cost per drop off would be cheaper with Staples than your own chain that only serves you. GameStop is a game of constant pivots that sound good to its meme-believers that do not really work in the real-world.
getnormality 5mo ago
> the should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet. I agree it's weird but ultimately the check against dumb lending is natural consequences for the lender, right? If you ask me for billions in loans for your zero revenue company and I give it to you, whose problem is that but my own?
- consp 5mo ago
  In the modern world if you are a bank you will be bailed out eventually, thus your problem becoming everyone's problem.
  - boringg 5mo ago
    Ah-hem SVB?
    - vallassy 5mo ago
      An outlier in historical terms (i.e. the last 20 years) https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list
      - deleted 5mo ago
        [deleted]
      - deleted 5mo ago
        [deleted]
    - matwood 5mo ago
      SVB was not bailed out. Depositors were made whole (as they should be), but shareholders were completely wiped out (as they should have been).
      - boringg 5mo ago
        My point exactly.
fasteo 5mo ago
>>> should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet This is a basically a leveraged buyout (LBO). All private equity works this way. Yes, it should be illegal, or at least heavily limited. I highly recommend this book: "Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America"
- elzbardico 5mo ago
  This book got a unfortunate title. Private Equity can be a completely legitimate activity. What it needs is some regulation on some underhanded financial tatics it uses, such as LBO.
  - Barbing 5mo ago
    Hilton is a good example, right? But vast majority of the time it’s bad?
    - akiselev 5mo ago
      The vast majority of the time, you don't hear about it at all. Leveraged buyouts and the monopolistic strategies like buying out all the private doctors or veterinarians in a region get all the negative press but they're a tiny fraction of private equity. The big money is in really boring industries like mining/oil/resource extraction, power plants, infrastructure, construction, and other industries that are predictable and in high demand everywhere. PE firms often get the best deals because they thrive on those kinds of connections and can offer up large amounts of capital on favorable terms in exchange for first dibs. The "rich get richer" is their primary strategy and it works without minmaxing exploitation because that's a bottom feeder strategy, not one that can guarantee steady returns on tens of billions of dollars.
- triceratops 5mo ago
  Is it still "private equity" if a public company takes a loan to buy another public company?
  - 5mo ago
rahimnathwani 5mo ago
Whether the acquirer or target borrows the money, this would not allow to increase the market cap of the company. It would increase the enterprise value (because the debt allows you to make a bigger acquisition), but not the market cap.
vmbm 5mo ago
If the market is "efficient", then the debt should work against the market cap. For example if we assume a $50B offer at 50%/50% debt and stock, then we should expect the market cap to only increase by $25B. And for GME shareholders, they should expect their stock price to stay roughly the same because that $25B market cap would be offset by a corresponding increase in the number of shares. The debt would increase the enterprise value of the company, which is the more comprehensive metric to use when trying to value a company as it takes into account both debt obligations and cash on hand. Of course the market may move the price up or down based on how much they like the merger. If they think there is some synergy here, they may move things higher. If they think the debt is too burdensome or have other issues with it, they will move the price lower. But all things being equal, any market cap increase of a buyout should be offset by the dilution that was incurred to finance the deal. What looks like a "hack" here though, is that Cohen tied his incentive structure to market cap and not share price. The fact that his award is in the form of options and not RSU's does add some incentive for a higher share price, but at the end of the day, it looks like he can get 100% of his award by simply buying companies using dilutive stock issuance. Not sure how much the GME faithful appreciated that at the time of the vote. I think Elon did something similar in his incentive package.
Nifty3929 5mo ago
It is not at all clear to me why people get upset about using borrowed money on the balance sheet of the acquired company. Say company B wants to buy company A. Company A is worth $20B, but the buyer doesn't have that much, and the original owners/shareholders want to get paid. So Company A takes out a $20B loan, paying out the original owners, making that company worth $zero. Now Company B gets it - it's still worth zero because of the fat loan, but now Company B is the owner. I don't feel like anybody got taken advantage of in this financing model. In fact, this is pretty close to what happens in the US real estate market. When I buy a house I take out a loan against that house. It's non-recourse, so it's very much like the house borrowed the money, not me. In any case, I got the house with a lot less money than the purchase price. Sometimes nearly zero from me in fact. I do understand why people get angry about what often happens next - layoffs and such - but I think that's very independent of the financing used to purchase the company. The acquirer could pay all cash using money from it's own bank account, and then still lay a bunch of people off - and in fact that often happens.
chrisss395 5mo ago
Yes...but isn't his employment contract structured to incent this kind of move? His pay is 100% at-risk in the form of 170M+ stock options that only vest if he hits some astronomical targets. I'm just not sure his rationale is completely objective given such a structure...
- conductr 5mo ago
  > I'm just not sure his rationale is completely objective given such a structure... Which is why the board would have to approve the deal and he can’t act alone on it. He was hired to create and execute the strategy including finding the target. The real question is, why did he get hired to do something anyone could have done?

vasco 5mo ago

The Gamestop CEO is an interesting character, he grew Chewy and sold it, did a massive play on Apple stock during the pandemic and used that to buy a 9% stake in Gamestop over time, rode the hype to accumulate $9B while turning the company around and closing stores that weren't profitable and making it a money making budiness again. And now they already own 5% of eBay on top. Along the way he says some ridiculous Trump stuff and wasted a bunch of time on NFTs but the eBay play seems interesting at least. It's one of the best internet soap operas to follow. For comparison AMC was put in the same "meme stock" bag at the time and you can see how they managed to ride the hype. So it's not just memes.

Rekindle8090 5mo ago
[dead]
Eldt 5mo ago
He's a meme trader manipulating retailer investors, following Elon's footsteps
- memaw12341234 5mo ago
  those guys have a very strong track record of getting their way lately
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
- CWwdcdk7h 5mo ago
  I mean he pumped and dumped BBB, and those people (or should we call them apes?) still love this guy.
dcminter 5mo ago
I look forward to today's Money Stuff!
turtlesdown11 5mo ago

robotswantdata 5mo ago

[dead]

orlp 5mo ago

GameStop doesn't have (even close to) $55.5B. Their offer from the letter is literally impossible: > Our offer is $125.00 per share, comprising 50% cash and 50% GameStop common stock Even if you magically included all existing GameStop stock in the offer, it still would not comprise 50% of $55.5B. EDIT: looks like it's not impossible and I misunderstood. It's a proposed change of leadership with a $25B injection of cash to sweeten the deal. GameStop would issue shares which would capture the original eBay value (since GameStop would own eBay after the trade), making that part a wash. At least assuming people owning eBay stock currently would value the combined company at at least the sum of their parts, which is a big if.

ceejayoz 5mo ago
Isn’t that just a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leveraged_buyout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leveraged_buyout ?
- AureliusMA 5mo ago
  Yup.
- croemer 5mo ago
  The stock part is more like a merger than a buyout.
- sigmoid10 5mo ago
  That's just for the cash part. The stock part makes no sense. For this 50/50 deal to work in principle, they'd need to issue around a billion new shares, which would massively dilute the existing ~450M shares. So Ebay shareholders would suddenly own 70% of Gamestop after the deal. It's also highly questionable if investors actually believe the combined stock is worth that much, so the stock price would probably fall and turn those 70% into >90%. At this point it basically becomes a reverse acquisition plus a large loan for the final company from the cash part of the deal.
  - ryandamm 5mo ago

jofzar 5mo ago

I was seeing the news about this calling it GameStop eBay takeover and I assumed it was eBay buying GameStop and I was like, huh that doesn't really make sense for eBay to buy GameStop but maybe they want the physical locations? How the hell can GameStop buy eBay, this is insane.

mrweasel 5mo ago
The other way around made more sense to me as well. I don't see this going well for eBay, but I also don't entirely know how well their business is doing. Here local eBay "clones" aren't in a good place and have been left as ghost towns after Facebook Marketplace.

moomin 5mo ago

Very specific corners of the internet are losing their minds right now.

fuzzfactor 5mo ago
A low tide leaves very few boats afloat, but these are lighter-than-air craft.
- i_think_so 5mo ago
  This very specific corner of the internet has no idea how your metaphor is supposed to work, which is why I like it so much.

maz1b 5mo ago

Not a headline I ever thought I would see. Kinda crazy how meme stocks and retail hype has led to this.

HelloUsername 5mo ago

Previous discussion: "GameStop Preparing Offer for eBay" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985271 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985271 68 comments

woodydesign 5mo ago

From storytelling to investor POV, does it a good story to frame this as entering the AI era through a digital service that everyone familiar with?

manwithnoplan 5mo ago

A lot of the comments here seem to assume that a smaller public company can’t acquire a larger one, which just isn’t true. A quick search for how leveraged acquisitions, stock-for-stock deals, financing commitments, or tender offers work would answer most of the objections. Is it too much to ask the Hacker News commentariat to do one quick search before collectively declaring that something they don’t understand is impossible?

petesergeant 5mo ago
> Is it too much to ask the Hacker News commentariat to do one quick search Are you new here?
dgellow 5mo ago
I see a single comment mentioning it is impossible. No sign of a collective declaration. I think you’re overreacting
- manwithnoplan 5mo ago
  I think you are under reacting.
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
lijok 5mo ago
There’s one comment as of the time of your post that makes this assumption - you could have replied to them directly.
- manwithnoplan 5mo ago
  It is implicitly implied in many comments.
  - wwalexander 5mo ago

schnitzelstoat 5mo ago

I guess if people use eBay a lot to sell used games then there is something of an overlap there. Otherwise, it seems pretty weird.

harvey9 5mo ago
That sneaker company that pivoted to data centers set the 'weird' bar pretty high. GameStop has physical stores so could be a place to send, collect from or even verify high value eBay items.
- fg137 5mo ago
  Based on my own experience with GameStop, that will convince me to stop using eBay completely.
  - reddalo 5mo ago
    I'd be sad because eBay works great (even if their software is old and would need a complete rewrite).
    - idiotsecant 5mo ago
      Why does it need a rewrite if it works great?
      - reddalo 5mo ago
        Because it works great as a platform, and because I've been using it for 20 years. But for a new user, it looks completely messy, with pages that are vastly different from each other and many sections that look exactly as they were in the early 2000's.
        idiotsecant 5mo ago
        I'm not sure 'it looks like it did in 2000' is worth tearing it all down, starting over, and introducing new bugs. Sometimes things just work. Ebay is very functional for a huge amount of commerce. It loads reasonably quickly and is reasonably easy to navigate.

kome 5mo ago

ebay is still "old internet", and genuinely useful and well built. enshittification is incoming...

consp 5mo ago
For an old internet company they sure know how to enshittify global selling with their Global Shipping Program also know as Global Shitting Program.
GaryBluto 5mo ago
Have you used eBay in the last few years? It's awful for sellers and awful for buyers. This is coming from somebody who buys on eBay twice a month on average.
- radlad 5mo ago
  What would make it better? My only complaint as a seller is fees. I have no complaints as a buyer. The best part is eBay works exactly the same as 10 years ago, as far as I can tell.
  - TheCondor 5mo ago
    I try not to use it and then something will come up and I use it. Could be my market, or who knows what but there seems to be more scams. It’s the only place someone can give you a fake tracking number (somehow people get these from UPS) get caught and other than a refund after weeks and a negative reputation ding, they get to keep on doing it. The fake tracking number scam has been going on for years too, it’s still happening. Permanently ban for people caught doing this, preferred shippers with eBay as a managed tracker or something like that.
    - radlad 5mo ago
      I have never had this happen, but I don't buy from first-time eBay sellers. There are definitely scams on there, but they seem to be "too good to be true" prices with 0 reviews on the seller. Surely you're not getting scammed by sellers with lots of reputational history? I actually am more nervous as a seller, as their buyer protection almost always sides with buyers, at least in the US (and the fee is astronomical.)

olalonde 5mo ago

"I like the stock" - GameStop

sschueller 5mo ago

Are there still large shorts on GameStop? If this goes through I assume it will wipe those out?

fineIllregister 5mo ago
No. Short interest is at 15% and cost to borrow is .36%.

bilekas 5mo ago

If they can do some accounting trickery to pull this off then they deserve it. Makes zero sense to me but I did not think GameStop had even close to that in assets.

hdndjsbbs 5mo ago
It's the leveraged buyout playbook. You buy a company and use its own assets to secure a loan. Then you "find efficiencies" (strip it for parts to pay yourself and the creditors).
- 59percentmore 5mo ago
  In this case, if the deal goes through at the price given, eBay's liquid assets are untouched. The cash portion is paid out entirely through the loan and Gamestop's cash.
  - CWwdcdk7h 5mo ago
    > $20 billion in debt financing This debt will carried by company resulting from merge. It might be not classic leveraged buyout but if they have any trouble with repaying it, it will end in asset liquidation all the same.
    - 59percentmore 5mo ago
      That's true. But they also have a $6 billion cash cushion to try to service that debt.
  - hdndjsbbs 5mo ago
    Yes, the loan is the leverage. It's secured against the assets of eBay. If the acquisition fails to produce efficiencies the resulting company has a bunch of extra, arguably unnecessary debt from the acquisition that a free-standing eBay wouldn't have.
    - 59percentmore 5mo ago

wigster 5mo ago

i don't understand why ebay looks SO terrible. It seems like some broken website where css failed to load.

techterrier 5mo ago

is this for real? Or just to get gamestonks back into the news for another whirl on the wheel of meme?

Ekaros 5mo ago
They have managed to raise lot of money and don't have any proper ideas what to use it for. So this might not be worst possible way.

seydor 5mo ago

I believe ebay should put itself up for sale on ebay instead.

TonyTrapp 5mo ago
Auction or "buy now" with price suggestion?
- mghackerlady 5mo ago
  I once saw a pair of "very used" ready-to-rumble promotional boxers for bidding at $99 or buy it now for $1300
traderj0e 5mo ago
GameStop would buy it and then not even pay, then eBay would be like wtf now I have to relist myself
itomato 5mo ago
Oh, the GMV bump would mean a nice bonus

rasz 5mo ago

Reminds me of Sierra On-Line being acquired by CUCk International in 1996.

sgt 5mo ago
That was a sad story. Al Lowe talked about it a couple of years ago on a German podcast.

oybng 5mo ago

With the state ebay is in, I'd welcome anyone else to run it

jollyllama 5mo ago
I know what you mean, but I highly suspect there's room for it to get worse.
- traderj0e 5mo ago
  eBay is too easy to take for granted if you've never tried buying or selling things on FB Marketplace or Craigslist. Having people over the internet trade things with minimal middleman is a really hard problem, and someone will always get scammed somewhere.

ulfw 5mo ago

Every day our world is becoming just that tiny little bit more stupid

kibwen 5mo ago
Not true, on many days it becomes enormously more stupid.

adam_patarino 5mo ago

Diamond hands?

Frieren 5mo ago

Most business nowadays is related to financial transactions instead of building new products or services The real economy seems to be burning but Wallstreet acts as if it didn't matter.

StilesCrisis 5mo ago
Data center build-outs and AI investments are huge. They make the combined numbers look almost normal, but if you're not in the data-center construction business, the US is already in a recession.

aykutseker 5mo ago

2021: a Reddit short squeeze kept GameStop from going under. 2026: GameStop is bidding $55B for eBay, a company 4x its size. If it lands, this might be the strangest full circle moment public markets have ever produced.

doginasuit 5mo ago
Is it still riding the meme stock wave or has GameStop made a turnaround?
- trillic 5mo ago
  Liquid Assets: May 2020: $570.3 million Jan 2026: $9.013 billion
  - SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
    Who would down vote this? It’s true. Can people here really not keep their emotions in check enough to admit clearly obvious facts?
    - ferfumarma 5mo ago
      The entire conventional zeitgeist is denying plain truths that hurt your self image. It seems consistent that the same thing would happen here.
      - deleted 5mo ago
        [deleted]
    - turtlesdown11 5mo ago
      > Who would down vote this? It’s true. It's not an answer to the question of a turnaround, and therefore low quality information? How much you have in assets does not correlate with the ongoing success of the business. Examining the day to day business of Gamestop and excluding the memestock shenanigans leaves a very bad business. The core business has declining revenue - net sales 2016 $8.6b, 2025 $3.5b and still in decline. Cash flow from operations also continues to shrink. Store footprint has shrunk. The underlying business stinks, even if they made a ton of money selling stock, they haven't done anything significant to halt the spiral. To the poster below asking if I'm drunk. Please provide some sort of revenue citation to 18x? https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/gme/revenue/ https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/gme/revenue/

pfdietz 5mo ago

Is this going to turn Gamestop stores into something like those "sell it on Ebay" stores?

parrellel 5mo ago
No, its going to give the CEO and some shareholders a few billion and destroy eBay. Because we can't have nice things. I am so painfully sick of this.
- threetonesun 5mo ago
  eBay isn't doing itself any favors these days, the site seems to have issues on a regular basis and they're heavily promoting collectible/gambling garbage on the site. If anything eBay and GameStop seem perfect for each other.
  - traderj0e 5mo ago
    There's tons of stuff I wanted or needed that was easiest to find on eBay. And I also sold old things there. Idk idc what the market for anime trading cards looks like.
  - kjs3 5mo ago
    Hadn't noticed gambling...they keep shoving car parts into everything I look for. And their insipid live auction wannabe QVC Network nonsense.

oompydoompy74 5mo ago

Can we please not? eBay is one of the few places I still enjoy on the web.

JumpCrisscross 5mo ago

The offer letter: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326380/000119312526202468/d138475dex991.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326380/000119312526...

blks 5mo ago

Famous grifter Ryan Cohen is back in business. Time to collect more money from reddit

BoggleOhYeah 5mo ago
Why not? They haven’t left him even as he’s done little but dilute them to stockpile cash.

ramon156 5mo ago

Wonder what Shkreli thinks of this.

parrellel 5mo ago

I was just thinking how nice it was to still get used stuff on eBay and now Mr. McMemeStock is going to kill it to extract a few billion for himself. Yay.

avonmach 5mo ago

GameStop is going to acquire BestBuy

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

Essentialhoodie 5mo ago

[dead]

Forgeties79 5mo ago

GameStop is not a serious company and I can’t believe some people still buy in to their hype nonsense.

throwaway2037 5mo ago

There is no way that this deal will go through. However, it is good publicity stunt! Their offer is only 20% above the current share price, and they don't have nearly enough funding to complete the transaction. I would love to know what rate TD Securities is willing to lend? What would be the spread over 3month USD LIBOR? I assume 300-500 bps.

wclockdash 5mo ago

Great discussion. Curious what others think about the intersection of productivity and browser tooling here.

snitty 5mo ago

>55.5B Is this offer on a timer?

freakynit 5mo ago

[flagged]

VoidWhisperer 5mo ago
From a quick glance, the headline text is weirdly stretched on mobile, unless that is how it is supposed to be with that font
- freakynit 5mo ago
  Markdown to html parser issue.. will fix.. The reports are originally generated in markdown format. Thanks..

bhouston 5mo ago

This is just a leverage buyout and it will likely result in the slow death of both parties while there is value extraction for those in control. Think Sears, Toys R US and similar. The CEO has a very specific deal where he gets paid significant compensation for specific valuations, which this is likely to achieve. That is value extraction at the cost of shareholders who will be on the hook for the leveraged loan and which will likely wipe them all out over time.

v4dm 5mo ago
Gets paid compensation in stock. So if shareholders lose value, he does too.
- ball_of_lint 5mo ago
  Not exactly, https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Announces-Long-Term-Performance-Award-for-Ryan-Cohen/default.aspx https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202... He has to hit both the market cap and EBITDA for each tranche of his compensation plan to vest. He could do this by growing the core business, or by doing a merger like the proposed eBay one. Even if such a merger was very dilutive, even value destroying, it could help him vest a tranche he otherwise would not, for more value than the dilution reduces his position. To be absolutely clear, I hope+think in practice that he is aligned with shareholders, especially given that the market cap restrictions appear much easier to hit than the EBITDA ones, but it's important to be precise because there's so much misinformation going around.
  - v4dm 4mo ago
    Do you understand that these shares are not awarded, though? He has to BUY them, so if they are worthless, his comp will be too.
  - 59percentmore 5mo ago
    Well, how much more value? It seems like an awful lot of work to make thousands, if not millions, of shareholders very angry with you, if he's just adding cents-per-dollar to his net worth. I'm not saying that that isn't his aim, and I've definitely considered that a Vader Imposition is in play. But it seems like there are easier ways to make that kind of money without becoming Public Enemy #1, smack-dab in the middle of the "eat the rich" zeitgeist.

teknologist 5mo ago

Is eBay just a hive of scams now? Try searching for a Mac Studio with 512gb of RAM for example. I know it's a highly sought after item, but there are so many sellers with 0 reviews supposedly selling these at suspiciously low prices. What's going on here?

jakemauer 5mo ago
Same thing if you search for a PS5 Pro. And I have no idea how these aren’t taken down.
cdaringe 5mo ago
I bought some dope weight lifting shoes last week. 46 bucks after shipping, 175 new. I’m pretty stoked on that. I was looking for a 3090 recently too and i did see the 0 rep sellers with buy it nows 10% under market value. That was a little sus. Nonetheless https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?id=4210#section1 https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee... is a thing?

zx8080 5mo ago

So their crypto investment did not work out? Who would have thought! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/gamestop-to-borrow-1-3-billion-to-fund-bitcoin-buying-spree https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/gamestop-...

Ritewut 5mo ago
Their bitcoin investment is what kept them profitable at times. Same as Tesla.
- ball_of_lint 5mo ago
  They can't include it in EBITDA
v4dm 5mo ago
It did, actually!

giancarlostoro 5mo ago

The original shorting of GameStop back in 2021 gave them a bit of a boost back into the green. While people were doing the GME to the moon, GameStop made more shares to sell, and paid off a bit of its debts, I think it made about a billion dollars in profit, they're still struggling, but it helped prolong their life. A friend of mine also pointed out and this made it click for me that it makes 100% sense, GameStop is setup as a legal pawnshop in every state. So a pawnshop buying out eBay makes insane sense. This merger in theory could be good for both eBay and GameStop if they don't mess it up. Imagine being able to list your eBay items locally without having to have people needing to come to your house, or better yet, getting a cut of what you wanted up front since they're basically a pawn shop, and then they list it on eBay and turn a bit of a profit with a local pickup option available. I could see this working out decently, assuming the CEO of GameStop doesn't mess it up completely.

jnellis 5mo ago
Was this not lampooned directly in "40 Year Old Virgin" where a young Jonah Hill tries to buy some disco boots at an ebay store but can't because you have to go through the website.
- radlad 5mo ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxRg5I7r5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxRg5I7r5s
dgellow 5mo ago
I thought the point of eBay was to get rid of that middleman. Wouldn’t that be something eBay would have done at some point if they wanted to own a pawnshop? Not saying that cannot work but that doesn’t sound like a genius idea
- metalliqaz 5mo ago
  Yes, exactly. In fact there were some ebay "helper" companies that made a go of it in the early 2000's. They went out of business because it doesn't add enough value. USPS created Media Mail and flat rate boxes, and UPS stores are found in nearly every community. They handle the hard part (shipping) well enough. The only thing I can think of is Gamestop positioning to become a clearing house for fan swag or gaming items the way Woot is for Amazon overstock.

wnevets 5mo ago

They're gonna have to sell ALOT of their NFT power packs

Iolaum 5mo ago

Many people noticed the math doesn't add up, e.g. in the CEO's interview here [0]. Am wondering if they are betting on the stock going up because of the news so they would then be able to fund the deal. [0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-ceos-awkward-interview-after-billion-ebay-offer-2026-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-ceos-awkward-interv...

ball_of_lint 5mo ago
I think Ryan handled that badly because he didn't believe the question was serious. They're offering 50% cash and 50% stock. At an eBay valuation of 56B: 20B of cash will come from their creditor, TD Bank. 8B will come from GameStop itself. 28B will come in the form of stock from the resulting entity, which will own eBay and presumably have a valuation north of 56B. The resulting entity may end up having 50% or more of it's equity allocated to the existing eBay shareholders. This is normal for a M&A where a smaller company buys a larger one.
- fragmede 5mo ago
  "Normal" for M&A, and if you drink enough finance kool-aid it even makes sense, but then you step back, and go wait, no it doesn't!
  - ball_of_lint 5mo ago
    Does it make more sense to you phrased as "GameStop offers to purchase controlling 50% of eBay for $28B" ?
    - fragmede 5mo ago
      The problem is it does!

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

JohnFen 5mo ago

Gamestop is one of the companies that I refuse to do business with. eBay is a company that I am reluctant about, but use anyway. If this goes through, that will be the final straw that gets me to stop using eBay entirely. That would probably be for the best.

ahaferburg 5mo ago
There is no valuable information in that comment.
nazgulsenpai 5mo ago
Why do you refuse to do business with GameStop?
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
ferfumarma 5mo ago
How come?
rbtprograms 5mo ago
its a fun place to buy games though

octaane 5mo ago

Long-time ebay seller here. I'm seeing comments floating towards the top that are essentially positing that the physical GameStop locations can be used as hubs where people can buy or sell their stuff in general (especially items that are 'pick-up only'). A pawn shop, basically. Thing is, GameStop is, well, for videogames and videogame paraphernalia. It's not a general store. Doing this would turn them into a thrift shop, not a pawn shop, as people are trying to offload their carpets, desks, etc - bulky stuff. I don't think this makes sense. This does make sense when you consider the collectable market, another domain I'm involved in. Trading card games, specifically pokemon, have exploded over the last 5 years. GameStop is making a killing off of buying, selling, and grading these cards. Ebay is the primary marketplace to buy and sell those cards. There's also tax free havens ("Vaults") offered by multiple companies, grading service passthroughs, and scalping offered through ebay too. Viewed through the above lens, that's what's prompting this offer, I think.

testudovictoria 5mo ago
I think a lot of people are missing that eBay bought TCG Player back in 2022. This would fold the TCG Player brand into GameStop. Many (most?) local game stores list their inventory on TCG Player. In addition to the physical stores themselves, GameStop would have their hand in nearly every digital trading card transaction. GameStop would own the TGC Player warehouses and inventory.
- wocram 5mo ago
  Tcgplayer is mostly a marketplace, I don't think physical presence does anything for them.
dgellow 5mo ago
Numbers I see for GameStop collectibles revenue FY2024: $718 million FY2025: $1.06 billion

randusername 5mo ago

Man the business school case-studies must be getting stranger and stranger by the day. What's the headline for this one?

elzbardico 5mo ago

How the fuck such a thing could happen in a sane world?

turtlesdown11 5mo ago
Anyone can offer to buy a business, I'm sending in a competing offer based on my internal valuation of my Schrute Buck holdings.

mobeigi 5mo ago

This was not on my bingo card. Not sure why eBay would take this personally. They've had a solid couple of years and there is room to grow. Gamestop on the other hand I'm not sure will exist in 10 years.

iwontberude 5mo ago

Please someone block this, they are going to ruin eBay.

protocolture 5mo ago
ebay cant get too much worse.

post-it 5mo ago

Everyone is taking this too far at face value. The purpose of this announcement is to pump GME stock.

IAmGraydon 5mo ago
Well it doesn't seem to be working.

toomanyrichies 5mo ago

https://archive.ph/CeCxv https://archive.ph/CeCxv

throwaway5752 5mo ago

The sad thing is it could succeed. This is exactly how Putin put the apparatuses of Russia into the hands of his allies. I'm sure GME will get administration support, any white knights will get Netflix treatment from the FTC. Cohen, as a loyal MAGA supporter, would then use Ebay cash to support Trump aligned groups.

kjs3 5mo ago

If it means eBay stops front-loading every search I make with car parts in thier latest market 'pivot' I'm for it. They can dispense with shoving the tacky 'live auction' stuff and constant 'are you sure you don't want to sell something', even better.

qzgrid37 5mo ago

[dead]

TheMagicHorsey 5mo ago

Is it just me being ignorant and crazy, or does it make more sense for EBay to take over Gamestop, rather than vice versa?

bronlund 5mo ago

I learned to programmed BASIC on paper long before I owned a computer. I knew I was going to get one though.

AdmiralAsshat 5mo ago

CNBC Interview with Ryan Cohen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E

elAhmo 5mo ago
This was so hard to watch. "Half stock, half cash" is such an insane shallow level of detail provided for a 55.5 billion takeover.
pesus 5mo ago
I see praise on Reddit (by GME stockholders, of course) saying that this makes him appear like some tough rebel standing up against the evil mainstream media... but I'm really not seeing it. To me it seems like a very tired (inebriated?) guy in a leather jacket who can't comprehend or answer a very basic question. Is this what passes for being a good CEO these days? I'd expect them to be able to at least come up with a vague response instead of claiming they can't comprehend that one number is bigger than the other.
- TrackerFF 5mo ago
  The company (stock) subs are always echo chambers of the worst kind, bordering straight up cults. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) being one of the worst / most hilarious ones.
- not_a_bot_4sho 5mo ago
  I don't know what I was expecting but I didn't walk away from that with any confidence in Ryan's abilities.

cwoolfe 5mo ago

I've been with eBay since 2006 and have been consistently disappointed with their consistent failure to innovate. They need some inspired leadership.

itomato 5mo ago

Your move, Jamie

vladmk 5mo ago

If they can do it, then I can do it. Why not? Making the same bid with made up money

SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
Do you have 9 billion in cash? Or are you as clueless as others about Gamestop from 2022 on?
- vladmk 4mo ago
  Definitely clueless - I’m not a genius like you who takes jokes seriously

yalogin 5mo ago

Not sure where the synergy is except that both sell used stuff. For their market shipping speed doesn’t matter and so their large store foot print is not useful either. This is just a play to become more meaningful and to have actual revenue.

nektro 5mo ago

when i saw this headline i expected it to be the other way around

kortilla 5mo ago

“Half cash, half stock.”

sakopov 5mo ago

GameStop CEO was on CNBC and acted like a total dick the entire time after they asked him how financing would work for this deal [1]. It appears that he's upset that Squawk Box previously stated that GameStop is a bankrupt meme stock. This is probably one of the funniest CNBC interviews I've seen. [1] https://youtu.be/Bmj2PaxX24E https://youtu.be/Bmj2PaxX24E

SigmundA 5mo ago
I mean its on the website...
potsandpans 5mo ago
I have to imagine that this performance was intentional and this guy is not just out of his mind. Just find it difficult to imagine anything outside of market manipulation: either an eBay pump and dump scheme, or collusion to get investors to sell as the inflation comes down so activists can pick up more.
- Forgeties79 5mo ago
  I did some digging today and learned that he currently takes no salary and stands to make an unbelievable amount of money if he hits certain (pretty unreasonable apparently) benchmarks. I think it was $35billion. My very armchair guess here is that he’s just trying something incredibly loud, brazen, and ambitious because at this point what else can you do? They’ve been falling apart for years, the business has not turned around at all even after the wildly inflated shares they sold to get some liquidity. He’s already rich and GameStop is falling apart, so really what’s the risk to him if it all goes under? May as well try a moonshot and move on. It’s not like anyone will hold him accountable for failing to turn around a ship that was already deemed sinking many years ago.
  - potsandpans 5mo ago
    Could be. But he has to secure board approval for doing something like this. So he apparently was able to convince the GameStop bod that this is a reasonable play. One has to wonder if there's an unstated interested party ready to back the deal.

tcp_handshaker 5mo ago

"He doesn't understand your question, CNBC" - https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1t3m56f/he_doesnt_understand_your_question_cnbc/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1t3m56f/he_...

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

kadomony 5mo ago

Shocked that they didn't just offer eBay $2 like they did for literally everything I brought to trade in.

whatever1 5mo ago

Do they have the cash to buy them ? If not, why should we provide the limited liquidity that our banks have to finance this? This logic should apply to all corporate acquisitions. You want to buy another company? Use your own cash and equity. No need for us to be exposed to your risk. This will also reduce the predatory private equity takeovers.

nateburke 5mo ago

Is this LBO a ridiculous enough of a proposition that you are going to email your senator and or representatives to complain about LBO loopholes in corporate finance law? I didn't think so. I wish them well!

blobbers 5mo ago

Anyone who is interested in how this sort of thing could work, or interested in how it has worked, could read the book "Barbarians at the Gate". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarians_at_the_Gate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarians_at_the_Gate) This sort of acquisition is typically called an LBO or Leveraged Buy Out. The story gets into the details of key figures involved, including Henry Kravis who people today would better know for his private equity firm KKR. Basic formula is raise cash using junk bonds, buy company, fix up company or kill off costs, use money company earns to pay debt, sell company. Since you have leveraged, your payout can be large. It's a similar style financing activity to a house flipper. example: buy house for 1M, but pay $200K + 800K debt (mortgage). Fix up house, sell for $1.2M. Pay off $800K debt. You're left with $400K, or 100% return!

dgellow 5mo ago
Minus fixing + selling costs
- blobbers 4mo ago
  Yep! Always helps when you have sweat equity or some clever idea. LBOs can have other formats. Take Debt, assign debt to part of the company, auction off arms, legs, kidneys of company to pay off debt... you're left with a shell of your former company but a boatload of cash to pay off the debt and everyone gets their bonuses. Unfortunately a lot of LBOs tend to result in job cuts. The Twitter deal was a bit of that sort of thing, and we all see where that went.

deferredgrant 5mo ago

[flagged]

rayiner 5mo ago

…how does GameStop have $55 billion?

morpheos137 5mo ago

Seems like a sign of the apocalypse.

jollymonATX 5mo ago

This will be the end of ebay most likely if it goes through. Not right off the bat, but eventually. Just a hunch.