GameStop has made an unsolicited offer to acquire e-commerce giant eBay Inc. For approximately $56 billion, wall street journal The report on Sunday cited an interview with GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen.
GameStop has built a roughly 5% stake in eBay and is offering $125 a share in cash and stock, Cohen said. WSJ.
The offer represents about a 20% premium over eBay’s last closing price on Friday.
If US online marketplace eBay is not receptive, Cohen said he is prepared to run a proxy fight and take the offer directly to shareholders, the report said.
WSJ It noted that GameStop had a market cap of about $11 billion as of Friday’s market close, while eBay was just above that with a market cap of $45 billion.
The report did not contain details on the potential proposal, but wsjsHelp suggests that Cohen could take the offer directly to eBay’s shareholders if eBay is not receptive.
Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop is expected to disclose details of its offer on Sunday, the Journal said.
It is important to note that the company’s CEO Ryan Cohen could receive $35 billion of stock if he meets certain criteria, including increasing GameStop’s market value to $100 billion.
Additionally, the acquisition of eBay may also be a part of Cohen’s plan to grow GameStop beyond its reputation as a video game and collectibles retailer.
However, the company has experienced a lot of ups and downs in recent history.
In 2022, GameStop attempted to create a market for non-fungible tokens which ultimately shut down a few years later.
Recently, GameStop announced its plans to move towards retro gaming at select locations. While the company is still touting ideas and seeing what happens, it also closed more than 400 retail locations across the US earlier this year.
