GameStop has $9 billion in cash. eBay is worth almost four times what GameStop is, and CEO Ryan Cohen still wants to make the math work.
The Wall Street Journal said Friday that GameStop is prepping a takeover bid for eBay, with an offer that could land later this month. eBay shares jumped about 13% in after-hours trading on the news, while GameStop ticked up around 4%.
The Math Behind The Bid
GameStop ended Friday with a market value of about $11.8 billion, while eBay's was around $46 billion. That gap is what makes this deal odd, with smaller firms rarely buying bigger ones outright.
GameStop's edge is the cash pile it built during the meme-stock years. The firm had close to $9 billion sitting on the books at the end of March, which is enough to fund a serious bid, especially if Cohen pairs cash with stock and takes on debt for the rest.
Cohen has been quietly buying eBay shares ahead of any formal offer, the Journal said. If eBay's board pushes back, he could take the bid straight to shareholders instead.
Why Cohen Might Actually Want This
Cohen built Chewy, the pet supplies retailer, before joining GameStop's board in 2021 and becoming CEO in 2023. He's been clear that he wants to turn GameStop into something much bigger than a video game store.
GameStop stores have been closing as gaming moves online, with the firm shifting its floor space and inventory toward collectibles and trading cards. eBay has spent years pushing the same lane, leaning into collectibles, used goods, and limited drops that often sell at a markup.
The customer overlap is real, since a card buyer at GameStop is the same person bidding on a rare card on eBay. For investors, the appeal of a combined firm is scale.
eBay handled about $80 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2025, which gives Cohen a much bigger platform to plug GameStop's collectibles play into. That's a runway GameStop alone can't match.
What To Watch
The first thing that matters is whether GameStop's offer is taken seriously by eBay's board, or whether Cohen has to go hostile. Hostile bids tend to drag on, and they almost always cost more in the end.
The second is what the deal actually looks like, since a cash-and-stock offer at this size would test how willing GameStop's investors are to take dilution. Cohen has said he sees a path to making GameStop worth ten times what it is today, and folding eBay into the firm would be the most aggressive way to get there.
Cohen has built a habit of using meme-stock cash to swing for big bets, and a hostile run at eBay would be the biggest one yet. Either way, both stocks are about to move on every leak.
