eBay has officially rejected GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s $56 billion offer to buy the company.
The eBay Board of Directors said it had rejected GameStop’s unsolicited proposal following a “thorough review with the support of its financial and legal advisors.”
Cohen had said that if eBay’s Board rejected his offer, he would take it directly to shareholders, insisting: “There is nobody who is more qualified, based on my experience, to run the eBay business.”
In a response letter to Cohen, published in full below, eBay chairman Paul Pressler said the offer “is neither credible nor attractive.”
Dear Mr. Cohen,
The Board, with the support of its independent advisors, has thoroughly reviewed your proposal and has determined to reject it.
We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive. We have taken into account such factors as 1) eBay’s standalone prospects, 2) the uncertainty regarding your financing proposal, 3) the impact of your proposal on eBay’s long-term growth and profitability, 4) the leverage, operational risks, and leadership structure of a combined entity, 5) the resulting implications of these factors on valuation, and 6) GameStop’s governance and executive incentives.
eBay is a strong, resilient business that has delivered meaningful results over the past several years. We have sharpened our strategic focus, strengthened execution, enhanced our marketplace and seller experience, and consistently returned capital to shareholders. With its differentiated global marketplace and a clear strategy, eBay’s Board is confident that the company, under its current management team, is well-positioned to continue to drive sustainable growth, execute with discipline, and deliver long-term value for our shareholders.
Our team remains focused on executing our strategy and driving our business forward in the best interests of the company, our shareholders, our employees, and millions of buyers and sellers around the world.
Sincerely,
/s/ Paul S. Pressler
Paul S. Pressler
Chairman of the Board of Directors, eBay
Earlier in May, GameStop made an unsolicited $55.5 billion offer to buy eBay at $125.00 per share in cash and stock. Cohen, who would become CEO of the combined company, said he wanted to make eBay a “legit competitor to Amazon” as he bids to grow his business beyond games and collectibles and hit a $35 billion payout in the process. GameStop has said eBay isn’t making enough money for what it’s spending, and that it would deliver $2 billion of annualized cost reductions within 12 months of closing the deal, suggesting plans for significant cuts. GameStop said its 1,600 U.S. retail locations “give eBay a national network for authentication, intake, fulfillment, and live commerce,” confirming plans to bring the eBay business into its stores. Cohen told The Wall Street Journal he would make GameStop stores locations to collect and authenticate items from eBay sellers. “GameStop staff already inspect and grade hardware and trading cards every day,” GameStop said when it announced the bid to buy eBay. “Sellers walk in, items are verified on the spot, and listings carry a trust badge.”
GameStop said the cash part of the offer is expected to be funded from a combination of cash and liquid investments on GameStop’s balance sheet, which totaled $9.4 billion as of January 31, 2026, and “third-party acquisition financing,” with up to $20 billion in debt financing from TD Securities.
With GameStop currently valued at $10.69 billion (assuming GameStop is providing all its stock for the deal), Cohen is looking at a $16 billion shortfall. But in a bizarre recent interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box programme, Cohen repeatedly refused to say where the money would come from, insisting he didn’t understand the line of questioning.
“It’s on our website. It’s half cash, half stock. But the details are on our website,” Cohen replied when interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin asked to make “the math math.” The suggestion was that the proposed deal could require significant share issuances that would massively dilute existing shareholders. The Wall Street Journal has said Cohen may turn to Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth funds to plug the money gap, but he failed to suggest that would be the case in the interview.
Then, in a publicity stunt, Cohen said he was “selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBay,” listing everything from baseball cards to a pair of socks. Each listing includes a hand-signed ‘Letter to eBay’ as a “THANK YOU for your support.” Cohen has spent the past week dumping on eBay on social media, tweeting about its financial performance, the social media activity of an eBay board member, and previous controversies, presumably in a bid to position himself as the company’s savior.
It’s worth noting that Cohen could make up to $35 billion in stock if the company’s market value hits $100 billion, among other compensation package criteria. In January, the 40-year-old billionaire told The Wall Street Journal he wanted a “big” deal that is “ultimately either going to be genius or totally, totally foolish.”
As of January, Cohen had a stake of over 9% in GameStop and was its biggest individual shareholder. Investor Michael Burry, who dumped his entire stake in GameStop after the company’s audacious bid for eBay, said earlier this year that Cohen “has a crappy business, and he is milking it best he can while taking advantage of the meme stock phenomenon to raise cash and wait for an opportunity to make a big buy of a real growing cash cow business.”
At the beginning of 2025, GameStop had around 2,325 locations in the U.S., but by the end of the year it had closed 590 of them. It then kicked off 2026 by closing even more stores as part of an effort to reduce costs.
For years now some have called GameStop a dying bricks and mortar retailer as it looks to new and often bizarre ways to generate revenue. August 2023 saw the company pull out of crypto, and it shut its short-lived NFT marketplace just a few months later. More recently (and much to the dismay of its employees), GameStop held its first-ever Trade Anything Day, which saw customers bringing in literally anything for trade-in credit at their local stores.
Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
