GameStop Proposes $56 Billion Acquisition of eBay
GameStop has announced an unsolicited offer to acquire eBay for approximately $56 billion, aiming to transform the established online marketplace into a platform capable of competing directly with Amazon. eBay confirmed receiving the proposal and stated it will "carefully evaluate" the offer, emphasizing no prior discussions or contact between the two companies.
According to the plan released by GameStop, the company intends to acquire eBay at a price of $125 per share, with some funding coming from the $9.4 billion in cash on its balance sheet and the remainder secured through external financing, including a credit line of up to $20 billion from TD Securities. However, GameStop has not fully explained the source of the remaining funding gap. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen may seek funding from external investors such as Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. The report also pointed out that if eBay’s board of directors rejects the current offer, Cohen is prepared to launch a proxy fight to push the deal through via a shareholder vote.
Cohen’s move is driven by strong personal incentives. As one of the iconic companies at the center of the 2021 “meme stock” frenzy, GameStop once surged under the influence of retail investors, attracting attention and regulatory scrutiny from Wall Street. In its latest long-term incentive plan released this year, Cohen’s personal return could reach as high as $35 billion if GameStop achieves a series of financial goals, including increasing its market capitalization to $100 billion. He told The Wall Street Journal bluntly that eBay “should – and will – be worth more money,” and stated his goal is to build eBay into a company with a market capitalization of hundreds of billions of dollars.
This aggressive M&A plan is also closely related to the business difficulties GameStop itself faces. Over the past year, as physical game consumption continues to decline, GameStop has closed more than 700 stores in the United States, leaving only 1,598 stores operating within the country as of January 2026. Although the company has tried to offset the decline in physical game sales by focusing on high-margin categories such as trading cards and collectibles, financial data shows that the company’s revenue still fell 14% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025.
In this context, merging with eBay and thereby entering the broader e-commerce market is seen as GameStop’s attempt to break away from the traditional game retail model and seek a new growth curve. However, with the financing structure still unclear, the prospect of regulatory review uncertain, and the attitude of eBay’s board of directors yet to be observed, there are still many uncertainties as to whether this $56 billion deal can truly be realized.