GameStop Wants to Acquire eBay for $55.5 Billion: The Video Game Store Looking to Become Amazon

GameStop has formalized a non-binding and unsolicited offer to acquire eBay at $125 per share, in a mixed cash-stock transaction that values the e-commerce platform at approximately $55.5 billion. The offer represents a 20% premium over eBay's closing price of $104.07 on Friday, and a 46% increase from the price on February 4, when GameStop began accumulating a stake in the company.

The deal is structured equally between cash and GameStop's common stock. To support the financing, the company has secured a commitment letter from TD Bank for a loan of up to $20 billion, along with approximately $9.4 billion of its own cash reserves. GameStop has also built a roughly 5% stake in eBay in the weeks leading up to the announcement.

The size gap between the two players is significant: GameStop had a market capitalization of about $11-12 billion before the news, while eBay was around $45-46 billion. This is thus one of the boldest maneuvers in the recent history of markets, with a buyer attempting to acquire a company four times its size.

At the center of the entire operation is Ryan Cohen, CEO of GameStop and co-founder of Chewy, the online pet product retailer sold to PetSmart in 2017 for $3.35 billion. Cohen has built a particularly loyal following over the years, in part due to his central role during the meme stock phenomenon of 2021, when GameStop shares skyrocketed by 1,500% in two weeks due to coordinated speculation on Reddit. Having taken over as CEO in September 2023, he returned the company to profitability through aggressive cost-cutting and the closure of hundreds of stores.

Cohen's outlined industrial strategy aims to make eBay a credible rival to Amazon in the e-commerce segment. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the manager stated that he wants to transform eBay into a company “worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” with an explicitly competitive vision against the Seattle giant.

The plan includes cuts to eBay's operating costs of $2 billion in the first year, with the sales and marketing budget identified as the main area of intervention. According to GameStop's projections, this streamlining alone could increase eBay's earnings per share from $4.26 to $7.79.

An additional element of the industrial plan concerns the physical network of about 1,600 GameStop stores in the United States, which would be integrated as infrastructure for authentication, logistics, and live commerce for the eBay platform.

From a financial perspective, Cohen's compensation package—redefined earlier this year—includes stock options tied to market capitalization and profitability targets: if GameStop reaches a market value of $100 billion and meets certain profit objectives, Cohen could earn up to $35 billion in stock. This alignment of interests represents one of the key incentives behind the aggressiveness of the acquisition strategy.

On eBay’s side, the situation is less rosy: after reaching $100 billion in gross sales in 2020, the figure declined to $79.6 billion in 2025, reflecting years of losing ground to Amazon and new vertical second-hand platforms. The recent acquisition of Depop by Etsy for $1.2 billion, announced in February, and the focus on categories such as collectibles and fashion, had driven eBay's stock up over 50% in the last twelve months.

The offer is subject to approval by eBay's board of directors, respective shareholders, and regulators. eBay has not made immediate comments. Should the board refuse, Cohen has stated he is prepared to take the proposal directly to shareholders through a "proxy fight." In the event of a successful closing of the transaction, Cohen would lead the combined group.