GameStop’s Activist Investor CEO Ryan Cohen Makes $56B Bid for eBay

Ryan Cohen, the billionaire activist investor and CEO of GameStop, has made a $56 billion bid to acquire eBay, marking his most ambitious deal yet. In a letter sent yesterday (May 3), GameStop offered $125 per share in a cash-and-stock transaction, a roughly 20 percent premium to eBay’s closing price last week and a 46 percent premium to its Feb. 4 close, the day GameStop began building a 5 percent stake in the company. If completed, Cohen would lead the combined company as CEO.

Cohen is no stranger to bold bets. He founded pet supply retailer Chewy in 2011 and sold it to PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017. He later rose to prominence during the 2020 meme stock surge, taking a stake in GameStop, joining its board in 2021 and becoming CEO in 2023. Under his leadership, GameStop reported $418 million in net income in fiscal 2025, driven largely by aggressive cost cuts. He has also taken activist positions in companies like Nordstrom and Bed Bath & Beyond, the latter of which he exited with a $68 million profit.

Cohen’s pitch for eBay centers on similar cost discipline. GameStop says it could cut $2 billion in annual expenses across sales and marketing, product development, and general administrative functions. The company also argues its 1,600 U.S. retail locations could support eBay’s operations in authentication, fulfillment and live commerce.

Where will the money come from? 

The proposal has raised immediate questions about financing. GameStop, with a market capitalization of about $11 billion, has roughly $9 billion in cash and a reported $20 billion financing letter from TD Gap, but that still leaves a significant shortfall. Shares of eBay rose 5 percent on the news, while GameStop fell 8 percent amid investor skepticism. “We give the deal a relatively low probability of success,” Baird analyst Colin Sebastian wrote in a note.

Cohen declined to provide detailed financing plans during a CNBC appearance, describing eBay as “a business that is under-earning and can make a lot more money.”

eBay confirmed it received the unsolicited offer and said its board would review it with advisors. The company noted it had no prior contact with GameStop about the bid.

The offer comes as eBay is in the midst of its own turnaround under CEO Jamie Iannone, who has focused on integrating A.I. tools and simplifying the selling process. The company has also targeted younger users, including through its acquisition of secondhand fashion platform Depop in February.

Recent results suggest that strategy is gaining traction. In the first quarter of 2026, eBay’s revenue rose 19 percent year over year to $3.1 billion, while its profit grew 2 percent to $512 million. Its stock has climbed about 60 percent over the past year, and the platform currently serves around 135 million buyers.

That momentum makes the deal harder to justify, some analysts say. “Why disrupt things?” Bernstein analyst Nikhil Devnani wrote. “The turnaround is working.”