Shares of eBay take off on a $56 billion buyout bid from GameStop’s Ryan Cohen

Shares of eBay are soaring before the opening bell as Ryan Cohen's GameStop pursues an approximately $56 billion takeover of the company, seeing it as a vehicle to compete with online retail giant Amazon. The national gaming retailer said that its approximately 1,600 U.S. stores could become drop-off and shipping locations. One proposal includes live sales broadcasts from GameStop locations featuring eBay products. “eBay has the second-largest commerce franchise, and there’s a big opportunity to do something much larger,” Cohen said in a CNBC interview. GameStop's bid is $125 per share in cash and stock. The equity value of the proposed deal is $55 billion on paper. eBay confirmed the huge bid and said that it had no talks with GameStop or received any outreach from the company before it received the proposal. The company's board, along with financial and legal advisors, will review the offer and determine what course of action to take, eBay said. GameStop said that it started accumulating shares in eBay beginning in February and currently has a 5% stake. The company is looking to lower costs at eBay, saying that the online seller spent $2.4 billion on sales and marketing in fiscal 2025 while only adding 1 million net active buyers. GameStop says it will achieve $2 billion in annualized cost cuts within a year of the proposed transaction's closing. Cohen, who owns about 9% of GameStop, would serve as CEO of the combined company. He would only be compensated based on the combined company's performance. Cohen became CEO of GameStop in 2023. At the time, the position had become a revolving door with the company trying to survive as streaming upended the gaming industry. GameStop became one of the most well-known meme stocks to create a frenzy among retail traders on Wall Street. The company’s shares took off in 2021 after a band of smaller-pocketed investors helped boost its stock by 1,000% in two weeks. GameStop shares have fallen since then, but are still up more than 30% this year. Shares of eBay jumped more than 7% in premarket trading, while GameStop's stock declined nearly 3%. This article was provided by The Associated Press.