GameStop CEO Reaffirms Push to Buy EBay After Rejected Offer
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said Thursday (July 16) that the company continues to pursue an acquisition of eBay, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Cohen declined to say whether he planned to raise his offer for the company but said “we’re coming for eBay one way or another,” according to the report.
EBay rejected a $56 billion offer from GameStop earlier this year, the report said.
Cohen said Thursday that he aims to turn the combined company into a $1 trillion business, in part by building a digital marketplace for video game items, taking advantage of synergies between the companies’ collectibles businesses, and using GameStop locations as hubs for authenticating trading cards, per the report.
“The pro forma company is going to be investment grade,” Cohen said.
PYMNTS reported May 3 that GameStop announced that it had submitted a nonbinding proposal to acquire 100% of eBay and that following closing, Cohen would serve as CEO of the new combined company.
In a letter to eBay, GameStop said that eBay had spent $2.4 billion on sales and marketing during fiscal year 2025 and added just 1 million net active buyers. GameStop pledged to cut around $1.2 billion in sales and marketing costs as part of $2 billion in annual cost reductions within 12 months of closing.
On May 12, PYMNTS reported that eBay rebuffed GameStop’s $56 billion acquisition offer and called the proposal “neither credible nor attractive.”
EBay said in an announcement that its board had reviewed the surprise takeover bid and decided to reject it based on eBay’s “standalone prospects,” “uncertainty” on how the deal would be financed, and the impact of the bid on its long-term profitability and growth.
GameStop said in a June 26 press release that its “leadership team remains focused on advancing the proposed acquisition of eBay” and that “additional materials regarding the proposed transaction are forthcoming.”
On July 7, GameStop said in a press release that its stockholders approved an increase in the number of authorized shares of Class A common stock and that this amendment “provides the Company with the capacity to issue common stock in connection with strategic acquisitions, including its proposed acquisition of eBay, Inc.”
