GameStop Eyes $46 Billion eBay Acquisition as Ryan Cohen Pursues Tenfold Growth Target

GameStop is preparing a takeover bid for eBay, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, with CEO Ryan Cohen quietly accumulating a stake in the e-commerce platform ahead of what could become one of the most unusual acquisition attempts in recent corporate history. An offer could arrive as soon as later this month, the Journal reported, as cited by Reuters and Bloomberg. eBay shares soared more than 13 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

The Details

The potential deal would see a company valued at roughly $11.8 billion attempt to acquire a target with a market capitalization of approximately $46 billion. Reuters noted that such a size disparity is rare in public-market M&A, where a buyer pursuing a company nearly four times its size typically relies on heavy debt, equity issuance, or a combination of both. Specific terms, including offer price and financing structure, have not been disclosed.

Cohen has been building a stake in eBay ahead of the planned approach, the Wall Street Journal reported. If eBay's board does not respond favorably to an offer, Cohen is prepared to take the bid directly to eBay's shareholders, bypassing the board entirely, according to the Journal's reporting cited by Reuters.

The financial markets registered the news immediately. eBay shares jumped more than 13 percent in after-hours trading following publication of the Journal's report, according to Bloomberg and Fortune. GameStop's own stock rose approximately four to six percent in the same session, Reuters and Yahoo Finance reported.

Spokespeople for both eBay and GameStop did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Fortune and Reuters noted.

The scale of Cohen's stated ambition frames the deal's strategic purpose. According to Fortune, Cohen plans to turn the combined companies into a retail enterprise and boost GameStop's market value more than tenfold — from its current roughly $11.8 billion to $100 billion. In January, GameStop unveiled a compensation package worth roughly $35 billion for Cohen, contingent on lifting the company's market value to $100 billion and achieving $10 billion in cumulative performance EBITDA, Reuters reported. The eBay pursuit appears directly tied to that goal.

The Wall Street Journal's report, which Bloomberg and Fortune also cited, described the potential bid as part of Cohen's broader plan to transform GameStop from a struggling video game retailer into a scaled retail platform. The primary reporting originated with the Journal; Reuters and Bloomberg independently corroborated the core claims.

Context

Ryan Cohen is the billionaire investor and founder of pet-supplies retailer Chewy who joined GameStop's board in January 2021 and became chief executive in September 2023, according to Reuters. His arrival at GameStop made him the central figure in the company's meme-stock moment, though the underlying business has continued to face structural headwinds.

GameStop has grappled with disruptions from the rise of online shopping and digital game purchases, forcing the company to close brick-and-mortar stores and pivot toward web-based revenue streams, collectibles, and trading cards, according to Reuters. That pivot has narrowed the company's retail footprint even as Cohen has sought a path to dramatic market value growth.

eBay, for its part, has been pushing into collectibles and used goods on its marketplace platform, Fortune reported. That overlap with GameStop's evolving product focus — collectibles, secondhand merchandise, and enthusiast goods — provides the strategic rationale for a combined operation, at least as Cohen has framed it through his reported $100 billion target.

Reuters noted that a potential deal of this structure would be unusual by the standards of public-company M&A. Acquirers rarely pursue targets nearly four times their own size, and such transactions require substantial external financing. The mechanics of how GameStop would fund an acquisition of eBay have not been publicly addressed by either company.

What's Next

The Wall Street Journal reported, via Reuters, that a formal offer from GameStop could be submitted as soon as later this month. Cohen retains the option to approach eBay shareholders directly if the company's board declines to engage with the bid, the Journal reported.

Neither eBay nor GameStop had issued public statements as of the time of reporting, and the size of Cohen's accumulated stake in eBay remains unknown. The specific terms of any potential offer — including price, form of consideration, and financing plan — have not been disclosed in the reporting from Reuters, Bloomberg, or Fortune.

Cohen's compensation structure, unveiled by GameStop in January, sets $100 billion in market value and $10 billion in cumulative performance EBITDA as the thresholds for his roughly $35 billion package, Reuters reported. Whether an eBay acquisition would satisfy those conditions, and on what timeline, remains unspecified in the available sourcing.