Baseball cards, video games, an old iPhone and a painting of a dog are among the items listed for sale on eBay the profile of Ryan Cohen, CEO of GameStop. Earlier this week, Cohen did an unsolicited offer of $56 billion to buy eBay. Now he appears to be selling personal collections on the platform to fund his takeover. The approach is attracting attention. It’s also leaving Wall Street and some of them GameStophis investors are trying to figure out exactly what he’s doing.
Cohen has not clearly explained how he would finance the proposed deal. During one interview with CNBC After announcing the offer, he repeatedly sidestepped questions about the financing, saying such details “are on our website” while criticizing the network for calling for “the destruction of GameStop.” The interview was later described as heady, strange AND COMBAT.
The confusion stems mainly from the scale of the proposal. GameStop has a market capitalization of nearly $11 billion, about $9 billion in cash and a $20 billion letter of financing from TD Bank. eBay is currently valued at around $47 billion. Cohen said he wants to merge eBay with GameStop and install himself as CEO. He argues that the combined company could cut $2 billion in annual costs.
At the same time, Cohen has managed to dominate the conversation. “The more attention you get, the more eyeballs — and people will be aware of, ‘Hey, maybe I should invest in this guy’s business.’ Steve Soltisa lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, told the Observer. “He’s a very smart guy.”
This dynamic fits Cohen’s story. He rose to prominence during the 2020 meme stock boom after investing in GameStop, joining its board in 2021 and becoming CEO in 2023. He previously founded chewable and sold to PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017, and has taken activist positions in companies like Nordstrom AND Bed Bath & Beyond.
Soltis, who has worked in executive communications for companies such as Coca-cola and UPS, sees the current moment as purposeful. “You are telling me that he will continue CNBC and you really don’t understand the logistics and technicalities of the deal? I personally don’t buy it,” he said. “He understands meme stakes probably better than anyone, and how to generate a lot of support from people who might be adversarial.”
Cohen is bent on that playbook. Shortly after the interview, he tweeted that he would be “selling items on eBay to pay for eBaydirecting his followers to X on his eBay account. eBay briefly suspended his account yesterday (March 7). But it is still active today with 35 listings. A pair GameStop store signs has already attracted a bid of $21,100.
“He knows this will travel on social media,” Soltis said. “I think he’s doing it just to be weird and position himself to be even more iconoclastic than he already is.”
Investors are less pleased. Shares of GameStop are down 4 percent this week. Michael Burryone of the company’s most closely watched shareholders, said he exited his position and warned the deal could take years to stabilise. “Never confuse debt with creativity,” Burry wrote in one Sub-stack post on May 4th.
Cohen’s eBay buyers, at least, seem pleased. His account, created in 2019, has a 100 percent positive feedback rating. Purchases come with free shipping and a copy of his eBay proposal letter.
