Ryan Cohen just handed Wall Street the most audacious corporate proposal of 2026.
GameStop, the video game retailer that became a cultural flashpoint during the meme stock frenzy of 2021, has submitted an unsolicited, non-binding proposal to acquire eBay for $125 per share in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $55.5 billion. The offer, announced Sunday evening, sent eBay shares surging nearly 12% in after-hours trading and touched off a firestorm of reactions across trading floors and financial news desks from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.
The move represents a tectonic shift in ambition for a company that, not long ago, was written off as a relic of brick-and-mortar retail clinging to relevance in a digital-first world.
The Offer on the Table
The offer is structured as half cash and half GameStop stock, representing a 46% premium to eBay’s closing share price on February 4 — the day GameStop began quietly building a 5% stake in the company. It also represents a 20% premium to eBay’s Friday close of $104.07.
Financing for the transaction would come from two sources: a roughly $9.4 billion cash reserve GameStop held as of January 31, 2026, and up to $20 billion in debt backed by a commitment letter already secured from TD Securities. Cohen told CNBC that GameStop also has the ability to issue additional stock to bridge any remaining gap.
EBay confirmed it received the offer in a statement Monday and said its board would review it. Markets, however, remained skeptical. Shares of eBay climbed about 6% after the Monday open to just over $110 — well below the $125 offer price — suggesting investors doubt the deal will close.
Cohen’s Vision: A Rival to Amazon
The logic behind the deal, as Cohen frames it, is sweeping. Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that the platform “could be a legit competitor” to Amazon, arguing that eBay has underperformed relative to its spending, pointing to minimal user growth despite roughly $2.4 billion in annual marketing costs.
Cohen pledged to find some $2 billion in annual savings within 12 months of a deal closing. Sales and marketing, product development, and general and administrative line items are all in scope for cuts. GameStop calculated that expense reductions of that magnitude would push eBay’s diluted earnings per share from $4.26 to $7.79.
Cohen’s vision extends beyond cost reduction. GameStop’s roughly 1,600 domestic stores were cited in the proposal as a ready-made infrastructure asset that eBay could leverage for item authentication, seller intake, order fulfillment, and live commerce. The idea is to turn physical retail locations — long seen as a liability in an age of digital downloads — into a supply chain advantage for a scaled e-commerce platform.
Cohen told the Journal he is thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars. In January, GameStop unveiled a compensation package that would reward Cohen with options on over 171 million shares if he lifted GameStop’s market value to $100 billion. Under the proposed deal structure, Cohen intends to lead the merged entity as chief executive, forgoing any salary or cash bonuses in favor of compensation tied entirely to the performance of the combined company.
From Meme Stock to M&A Heavyweight
The bid caps a transformation that few observers predicted. Since taking the reins at GameStop in early 2021, Cohen oversaw a financial turnaround that erased a $381 million net loss recorded that year and produced $418 million in net income by fiscal 2025, with SG&A costs cut by roughly $800 million along the way.
Cohen’s entrepreneurial track record includes co-founding Chewy, the e-commerce pet products company that PetSmart acquired for $3.35 billion in 2017. He has long argued that his experience building a direct-to-consumer e-commerce operation from the ground up gives him an edge that institutional management teams lack.
Cohen himself owns about 9% of GameStop and takes no salary or cash bonuses under his employment agreement, along with no golden parachute. That structure, he argues, aligns his incentives entirely with shareholders — a contrast he has drawn repeatedly with what he described as “perverse financial incentives” embedded in eBay’s current board and management team.
Wall Street Pushes Back
Not everyone on Wall Street is convinced. Bernstein analysts wrote in a note to clients that while there is overlap between GameStop’s and eBay’s businesses in games, toys and collectibles, the strategic rationale for such a deal remains unclear. They added that eBay’s current management team’s tenure has had its “ups and downs,” but that “recent execution has been solid,” asking: “Why disrupt things? The turnaround is working.”
The financing structure has also drawn scrutiny. GameStop’s current market value sits just below $12 billion, while eBay’s stands at $46 billion — making this a smaller company reaching far above its weight class, with a substantial funding gap remaining even after the TD Bank commitment is accounted for. Cohen offered limited clarity during a Monday morning appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, at times directing viewers to GameStop’s website for deal specifics.
Cohen confirmed he has not yet held any conversations with eBay’s management team, saying: “We are just starting. For obvious reasons, eBay is a public company, there’s all kinds of perverse financial incentives from the board to the management team. So there’s only one way to approach something like this.”
A Proxy Fight on the Horizon
If eBay’s board declines to engage, Cohen has made clear he will not walk away quietly. Cohen told the Wall Street Journal he is prepared to pursue a proxy fight and take the offer directly to eBay shareholders if the board declines to engage. That threat alone gives the bid teeth, regardless of how the board initially responds.
The financing structure behind the deal raises questions that neither side has fully answered yet, and the effective premium continues to shrink as eBay’s stock price moves closer to the $125 offer level.
What is certain is that Ryan Cohen — who once openly told investors that his next big move would be “either genius or totally, totally foolish” — has placed his most consequential bet. Wall Street, as of Monday, remains undecided on which it is.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational and news reporting purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendations, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. The information presented is based on publicly available reporting and announcements as of May 4, 2026. Stock prices, deal terms, and corporate positions may change. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions. NYWire does not hold any position in GameStop (GME), eBay (EBAY), or any related securities.
