GameStop's CEO posted a $56 billion offer to buy eBay on Monday. By Wednesday he was selling his sock drawer on eBay to help pay for it.
By Thursday, eBay had banned his account. Even by meme stock standards, this was a week.
GameStop's offer is $125 a share in cash and stock for eBay. The total runs to about $56 billion.
That stacks up against a GameStop market cap near $11 billion. TD Bank has signed on with a $20 billion loan plan, which still leaves a wide gap to fill.
Cohen's fix, as he wrote on X, was simple. He'd sell stuff on eBay to pay for eBay.
The store he set up had GameStop signs, a coffee mug, an old square of GameStop carpet, and old baseball cards. He even listed a worn pair of Adidas socks that bid up past $14,000.
Each item came with a hand-signed copy of the offer letter Cohen sent to eBay's board. Buyers also got free shipping on each item.
Even at top bids, all the listings totaled about $138,000. Against a $56 billion deal, that's a rounding error wrapped in a press stunt.
The stunt didn't last long. eBay first flagged that Cohen had blown past its $50,000 monthly listing cap.
Hours later, the account was shut down for what eBay called a risk to the marketplace. Cohen posted screen shots of both notices and tagged eBay's help team.
A GameStop rep pointed press back to those posts. eBay didn't speak on the ban.
The bigger problem isn't the ban. Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame said this week he sold his whole GameStop stake over the eBay deal.
His warning was blunt. "Never confuse debt for creativity," Burry wrote, citing what a $56 billion deal would do to GameStop's books.
Cohen has a track record of bold moves. He started Chewy and sold it to PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017.
His firm later made $68 million on a Bed Bath & Beyond stake. He's also known for the meme stock surge that pushed GameStop shares up more than 1,700% in just weeks.
As GameStop's CEO since 2023, Cohen has closed shops and cut about 4,500 jobs. The company's market cap has climbed from $1.3 billion in 2021 to about $11 billion now.
The eBay deal is a much bigger swing. GameStop would need to sell stock or take on heavy debt to fill the gap between TD's $20 billion loan plan and the $56 billion price tag.
Burry's read on that math is what long-term holders will weigh against the press stunt. eBay's own market cap is around $46 billion.
GameStop is meeting this week to look at the offer, but Semafor already framed the bid as dead on arrival. The next move will be from eBay's board.
For Cohen, the eBay account ban itself may be the strangest twist. He pitched a buyout, the target's own site locked him out, and Burry headed for the exit door.
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