GameStop Corp. made a formal bid to acquire eBay Inc. on Monday, offering $125 per share in cash and stock in a proposed deal valued at roughly $56 billion. The unsolicited offer is the boldest move yet by CEO Ryan Cohen, who joined the video-game retailer during its meme-stock surge and has since campaigned to turn it into a leaner, multi-platform company.
Cohen told CNBC that eBay has “the second largest commerce franchise” and that combining its platform with GameStop’s 1,600 U.S. storefronts could yield a distribution network capable of competing with Amazon. Under the plan, physical locations would serve as pickup, return, and shipping hubs, with potential for live-selling broadcasts from the stores.
GameStop, which disclosed a 5 percent stake in eBay accumulated since February, argued that the online marketplace spent $2.4 billion on sales and marketing in fiscal 2025 while adding only about 1 million net active buyers. The company claims it can strip out $2 billion in annualized costs within a year of closing, mainly by cutting eBay’s marketing budget. Cohen, who owns about 9 percent of GameStop, would serve as CEO of the merged company and would be compensated solely based on its performance.
EBay acknowledged the bid Monday morning but stressed it had not held any discussions with GameStop before receiving the proposal. “The company’s board, together with financial and legal advisors, will evaluate the offer and determine a course of action,” the company said.
Shares of eBay jumped more than 7 percent in premarket trading, while GameStop’s stock declined nearly 3 percent. The bid, though unsolicited, arrives with the direct backing of Cohen, who since becoming GameStop’s CEO in 2023 has pushed the company to turn its physical presence into a logistics asset rather than merely a storefront network.