US games specialist GameStop has unveiled an offer for ecommerce giant eBay.
GameStop chief executive Ryan Cohen maintained that eBay could be transformed into a much better business that could even rival Amazon.
GameStop has offered $125 per eBay share, it may mount a hostile takeover attempt if the unsolicited offer is rejected.
Cohen said in a letter to the ecommerce group: “eBay spent $2.4bn on sales & marketing in fiscal 2025 and added 1 million net active buyers (134 million to 135 million). We will take $2bn of annualised costs out within 12 months of close: $1.2bn from sales & marketing, $300m from product development, and $500m from general & administrative.”
GameStop observed: ”Beyond cost, GameStop’s ~1,600 US retail locations give eBay a national network for authentication, intake, fulfillment, and live commerce.”
Cohen pointed out that since 2021, GameStop has gone from a $381m net loss to $418m of net income, and reduced selling, general and administative expenses by almost half.
Cohen wrote: “I will serve as chief executive officer of the combined company. I will receive no salary, no cash bonuses and no golden parachute – I will be compensated solely based on the performance of the combined company.”
He told The Wall Street Journal: “I’m thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It could be a legit competitor to Amazon.”
eBay said it “will carefully review and consider the unsolicited proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the company and all eBay shareholders”, and would not make further comment until that had been done.
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