Ryan Cohen’s GameStop offers $125/share (50% cash, 50% stock) for eBay, pitching it as an Amazon rival using GameStop’s retail network for live commerce.
Key Takeaways
Deal is structured as $27.75B cash plus $27.75B in GameStop common stock; TD Securities committed ~$20B in debt financing.
GameStop holds ~$9B cash on hand; combined with TD debt covers the cash portion of the offer.
Cohen would take no salary or bonuses, paid only via performance of the combined company’s stock.
Proposed cuts target eBay’s sales and marketing division, framed as bloated for a brand with near-universal recognition.
Forrester analyst Sucharita Kodali warns the deal loads eBay with GameStop’s debt and does not combine two strong companies.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters flagged this as a textbook leveraged buyout: acquired company absorbs the debt, Cohen’s compensation triggers at a $20B GameStop market cap, which the acquisition would likely hit mechanically.
Structural feasibility debate was sharp early but resolved: GameStop’s ~$9B cash plus the TD Securities $20B commitment actually covers the cash tranche, making the offer technically executable, not a meme.
A non-obvious thread: eBay owns TCGPlayer (acquired 2022), so a combined GameStop-eBay would control both physical game stores and the dominant digital trading card marketplace used by most local game stores.
Notable Comments
@testudovictoria: Points out TCGPlayer acquisition folds into GameStop, giving Cohen a hand in nearly every digital trading card transaction plus warehouse inventory.
@bhouston: Frames this as Sears/Toys R Us pattern: LBO value extraction for insiders while shareholders absorb leveraged loan risk.
