GME’s Ryan Cohen Isn’t Done Chasing eBay, Remains Committed To Cracking A Deal: Report

• GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen is shifting GME’s focus toward the collectibles market, aligning with eBay's core strengths. 
• Cohen terms eBay a great business that’s been poorly managed. 
• Cohen is preparing to circumvent eBay's board by taking his $56 billion acquisition proposal directly to the company's shareholders.

GameStop Corp. Chief Executive Officer Ryan Cohen is escalating his pursuit of eBay Inc., signaling a willingness to launch a hostile takeover campaign after the e-commerce company’s board of directors abruptly rejected his unsolicited $56 billion buyout offer. 

Despite the firm corporate resistance from eBay, Cohen remains undeterred and is currently evaluating an aggressive push to bypass board approval entirely. According to an exclusive interview by Cohen to Barron's, the GameStop executive's next options include making a direct tender offer to individual eBay shareholders.

The corporate standoff began after Cohen formally proposed a cash-and-stock deal valued at $125 per share to acquire the e-commerce pioneer. However, eBay Chairman Paul Pressler swiftly shut down direct negotiations. In a letter addressed to Cohen, Pressler stated that the board determined the unsolicited expression of interest was "neither credible nor attractive," according to Barron's. 

Cohen seems to be taking eBay’s rejection personally and has continued to build his company’s position in the stock. At last count, GameStop had a 7.8% stake in eBay.

“I want to own eBay,” Cohen told Barron’s in an exclusive interview. “I want to own it for the long term. It’s a great business that’s been poorly managed.”

Ryan Cohen’s Views on eBay 

“My circle of competence is e-commerce,” Cohen said in the interview with Barron's. “I had a lot of learning to do going into a physical retailer. There’s a lot of the things that worked well at Chewy—it’s a different playbook in physical retail.”

“But eBay’s business is a business that is similar to Chewy. I understand e-commerce, and it’s my wheelhouse…E-commerce is something I understand very well, whereas physical retail was learning on the job,” Cohen added. 

“…at eBay, I don’t want to run a hot business, so my focus would be on rapidly deleveraging it and pulling costs out of the system,” Cohen added. “I’ve said that I’m going to pull $2 billion out.” “There’s a lot of fat to cut over there (eBay), and it’s going to make the business stronger, the same way it’s made GameStop stronger.”

GME and eBay Retail View 

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was “bullish” with “high” message volumes for GME and “bearish” and “low” for eBay. 

Retail chatter on GME stock has gained 36% on Stocktwits over the past 90 days and 2% over the past week. 

GME Stock has gained 2.7% year-to-date, and eBay has gained 28%.

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