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GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

n1b0m

Comments (281)

  • giancarlostoro
    The original shorting of GameStop back in 2021 gave them a bit of a boost back into the green. While people were doing the GME to the moon, GameStop made more shares to sell, and paid off a bit of its debts, I think it made about a billion dollars in profit, they're still struggling, but it helped prolong their life.A friend of mine also pointed out and this made it click for me that it makes 100% sense, GameStop is setup as a legal pawnshop in every state. So a pawnshop buying out eBay makes insane sense.This merger in theory could be good for both eBay and GameStop if they don't mess it up. Imagine being able to list your eBay items locally without having to have people needing to come to your house, or better yet, getting a cut of what you wanted up front since they're basically a pawn shop, and then they list it on eBay and turn a bit of a profit with a local pickup option available.I could see this working out decently, assuming the CEO of GameStop doesn't mess it up completely.
  • octaane
    Long-time ebay seller here. I'm seeing comments floating towards the top that are essentially positing that the physical GameStop locations can be used as hubs where people can buy or sell their stuff in general (especially items that are 'pick-up only'). A pawn shop, basically.Thing is, GameStop is, well, for videogames and videogame paraphernalia. It's not a general store. Doing this would turn them into a thrift shop, not a pawn shop, as people are trying to offload their carpets, desks, etc - bulky stuff.I don't think this makes sense.This does make sense when you consider the collectable market, another domain I'm involved in. Trading card games, specifically pokemon, have exploded over the last 5 years. GameStop is making a killing off of buying, selling, and grading these cards. Ebay is the primary marketplace to buy and sell those cards. There's also tax free havens ("Vaults") offered by multiple companies, grading service passthroughs, and scalping offered through ebay too.Viewed through the above lens, that's what's prompting this offer, I think.
  • pjc50
    Important background: https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202...CEO gets paid "only if GameStop achieves a market capitalization of $20 billion." Buying a $55bn company would certainly achieve that quickly. I'm not sure how they'd manage that (buy with what? Memes?), other than the should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet.
  • orlp
    GameStop doesn't have (even close to) $55.5B. Their offer from the letter is literally impossible:> Our offer is $125.00 per share, comprising 50% cash and 50% GameStop common stockEven if you magically included all existing GameStop stock in the offer, it still would not comprise 50% of $55.5B.EDIT: looks like it's not impossible and I misunderstood. It's a proposed change of leadership with a $25B injection of cash to sweeten the deal. GameStop would issue shares which would capture the original eBay value (since GameStop would own eBay after the trade), making that part a wash. At least assuming people owning eBay stock currently would value the combined company at at least the sum of their parts, which is a big if.
  • manwithnoplan
    A lot of the comments here seem to assume that a smaller public company can’t acquire a larger one, which just isn’t true.A quick search for how leveraged acquisitions, stock-for-stock deals, financing commitments, or tender offers work would answer most of the objections.Is it too much to ask the Hacker News commentariat to do one quick search before collectively declaring that something they don’t understand is impossible?
  • bhouston
    This is just a leverage buyout and it will likely result in the slow death of both parties while there is value extraction for those in control. Think Sears, Toys R US and similar.The CEO has a very specific deal where he gets paid significant compensation for specific valuations, which this is likely to achieve. That is value extraction at the cost of shareholders who will be on the hook for the leveraged loan and which will likely wipe them all out over time.
  • seydor
    I believe ebay should put itself up for sale on ebay instead.
  • aykutseker
    2021: a Reddit short squeeze kept GameStop from going under. 2026: GameStop is bidding $55B for eBay, a company 4x its size. If it lands, this might be the strangest full circle moment public markets have ever produced.
  • Iolaum
    Many people noticed the math doesn't add up, e.g. in the CEO's interview here [0]. Am wondering if they are betting on the stock going up because of the news so they would then be able to fund the deal.[0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-ceos-awkward-interv...
  • moomin
    Very specific corners of the internet are losing their minds right now.
  • zx8080
    So their crypto investment did not work out? Who would have thought! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/gamestop-...
  • Frieren
    Most business nowadays is related to financial transactions instead of building new products or servicesThe real economy seems to be burning but Wallstreet acts as if it didn't matter.
  • JumpCrisscross
  • pfdietz
    Is this going to turn Gamestop stores into something like those "sell it on Ebay" stores?
  • maz1b
    Not a headline I ever thought I would see. Kinda crazy how meme stocks and retail hype has led to this.
  • wnevets
    They're gonna have to sell ALOT of their NFT power packs
  • TrackerFF
    So they want to pay half of that with a meme stock?
  • HelloUsername
    Previous discussion: "GameStop Preparing Offer for eBay" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985271 68 comments
  • anon
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  • schnitzelstoat
    I guess if people use eBay a lot to sell used games then there is something of an overlap there. Otherwise, it seems pretty weird.
  • throwaway2037
    There is no way that this deal will go through. However, it is good publicity stunt! Their offer is only 20% above the current share price, and they don't have nearly enough funding to complete the transaction. I would love to know what rate TD Securities is willing to lend? What would be the spread over 3month USD LIBOR? I assume 300-500 bps.
  • oybng
    With the state ebay is in, I'd welcome anyone else to run it
  • ramon156
    Wonder what Shkreli thinks of this.
  • bilekas
    If they can do some accounting trickery to pull this off then they deserve it. Makes zero sense to me but I did not think GameStop had even close to that in assets.
  • olalonde
    "I like the stock" - GameStop
  • jofzar
    I was seeing the news about this calling it GameStop eBay takeover and I assumed it was eBay buying GameStop and I was like, huh that doesn't really make sense for eBay to buy GameStop but maybe they want the physical locations?How the hell can GameStop buy eBay, this is insane.
  • avonmach
    GameStop is going to acquire BestBuy
  • snitty
    >55.5BIs this offer on a timer?
  • teknologist
    Is eBay just a hive of scams now? Try searching for a Mac Studio with 512gb of RAM for example. I know it's a highly sought after item, but there are so many sellers with 0 reviews supposedly selling these at suspiciously low prices. What's going on here?
  • woodydesign
    From storytelling to investor POV, does it a good story to frame this as entering the AI era through a digital service that everyone familiar with?
  • ulfw
    Every day our world is becoming just that tiny little bit more stupid
  • wclockdash
    Great discussion. Curious what others think about the intersection of productivity and browser tooling here.
  • blks
    Famous grifter Ryan Cohen is back in business. Time to collect more money from reddit
  • sschueller
    Are there still large shorts on GameStop? If this goes through I assume it will wipe those out?
  • oompydoompy74
    Can we please not? eBay is one of the few places I still enjoy on the web.
  • adam_patarino
    Diamond hands?
  • wigster
    i don't understand why ebay looks SO terrible. It seems like some broken website where css failed to load.
  • vasco
    The Gamestop CEO is an interesting character, he grew Chewy and sold it, did a massive play on Apple stock during the pandemic and used that to buy a 9% stake in Gamestop over time, rode the hype to accumulate $9B while turning the company around and closing stores that weren't profitable and making it a money making budiness again. And now they already own 5% of eBay on top.Along the way he says some ridiculous Trump stuff and wasted a bunch of time on NFTs but the eBay play seems interesting at least. It's one of the best internet soap operas to follow. For comparison AMC was put in the same "meme stock" bag at the time and you can see how they managed to ride the hype. So it's not just memes.
  • rasz
    Reminds me of Sierra On-Line being acquired by CUCk International in 1996.
  • techterrier
    is this for real? Or just to get gamestonks back into the news for another whirl on the wheel of meme?
  • kome
    ebay is still "old internet", and genuinely useful and well built. enshittification is incoming...
  • robotswantdata
    [dead]
  • anon
    undefined
  • Essentialhoodie
    [dead]
  • freakynit
    [flagged]
  • Forgeties79
    GameStop is not a serious company and I can’t believe some people still buy in to their hype nonsense.
  • parrellel
    I was just thinking how nice it was to still get used stuff on eBay and now Mr. McMemeStock is going to kill it to extract a few billion for himself.Yay.
  • JohnFen
    Gamestop is one of the companies that I refuse to do business with. eBay is a company that I am reluctant about, but use anyway.If this goes through, that will be the final straw that gets me to stop using eBay entirely. That would probably be for the best.