GameStop announced that it has made an acquisition offer to eBay worth approximately $56 billion in an attempt to transform the long-established online marketplace into a platform that can compete head-on with Amazon. According to GameStop's release to investors, the proposal was an unsolicited acquisition. eBay issued a statement on Monday confirming receipt of the proposal and saying it would "carefully evaluate" the offer without prior communication, while emphasizing that there had been no discussions or contact between the two parties before receiving the offer.
According to the plan announced by GameStop, the company plans to acquire eBay at a price of $125 per share, and part of the funds will come from the 94% on its balance sheet. billion in cash and the rest through external financing, including a financing line of up to $20 billion from TD Securities. However, GameStop has not fully explained the specific source of the remaining funding gap. The Wall Street Journal quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen may seek financial support from external investors such as Middle East sovereign wealth funds. The report also noted that if eBay's board of directors rejects the current offer, Cohen is ready to launch a proxy fight and push for a deal through a shareholder vote.
There are strong personal motivations behind Cohen’s move. As one of the iconic companies at the center of the "meme stock" craze in 2021, GameStop once surged driven by retail investors, triggering Wall Street attention and regulatory questions. In the latest long-term incentive package unveiled this year, Cohen's personal reward could be as high as $35 billion if GameStop can meet a series of financial goals, including increasing its market value to $100 billion. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he bluntly stated that eBay "should - and will - be worth more money" and said that his goal is to build eBay into a company with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars.
This radical merger and acquisition plan is also closely related to the business difficulties faced by GameStop itself. GameStop has closed more than 700 stores in the United States over the past year as physical game consumption continues to decline, with only 1,598 stores still operating in the United States as of January 2026. Although the company tried to hedge against the decline in physical game sales by focusing on high-margin categories such as trading cards and collectibles, the company's revenue still fell 14% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to financial report data.
In this context, annexing eBay and using it to enter the broader comprehensive e-commerce market is regarded as a big gamble for GameStop to try to get rid of the traditional game retail model and seek a new growth curve. However, with the financing structure unclear, the prospect of regulatory review unknown, and the attitude of eBay's board of directors yet to be seen, there are still many uncertainties as to whether this massive $56 billion deal can actually come to fruition.