GameStop Stock Ticks Slightly Higher as Ryan Cohen Presses Ahead With Rejected $56 Billion eBay Bid Today

GameStop shares edged higher Monday morning as the video game retailer continued pressing forward with its unsolicited takeover bid for eBay, a deal eBay's own board has already rejected, even as the company touts sharply improved profitability and a sweeping new cost-cutting plan tied to the proposed combination.

Shares of the Grapevine, Texas-based company were trading at $21.93 as of 10:21 a.m. EDT, up 17 cents, or 0.78%, on the day. The modest gain builds on a stronger finish to last week, when GameStop shares climbed 1.2% over five sessions, breaking a streak of two consecutive weekly declines, helped along by a roughly 2% after-hours pop Friday following the company's latest financial outlook.

The center of attention for GameStop remains its pursuit of e-commerce giant eBay. GameStop delivered a non-binding proposal to eBay's board on May 3 to acquire all outstanding shares it does not already own for $125 per share, payable in a combination of cash and GameStop common stock, putting the aggregate undiluted equity value of the deal at roughly $55.5 billion. eBay's board moved quickly to reject the offer, characterizing it as neither credible nor attractive. GameStop has nonetheless continued to build its position in the target company, increasing its economic stake in eBay to roughly 7.8%, combining direct share ownership with a series of cash-settled option contracts that provide additional economic exposure to tens of millions more eBay shares.

GameStop Chief Executive Ryan Cohen has been the public face of the takeover push, framing the deal as both a strategic and personal priority.

"I want to own eBay," Cohen said.

Cohen has argued that eBay is poorly managed and burdened with excessive costs, and has said he intends to apply the same aggressive cost-cutting playbook that helped build Chewy, the online pet retailer he previously founded and led. GameStop has outlined a plan to extract roughly $2 billion in annualized cost reductions within 12 months of any completed deal, projecting that such savings could lift eBay's GAAP earnings per share from $4.26 to $7.79 in the first year alone. To finance the proposed acquisition, GameStop has pointed to roughly $9.4 billion in cash and liquid investments on its own balance sheet, supplemented by a financing letter from TD Securities for up to an additional $20 billion.

Cohen's commitment to the deal extended to his own compensation. GameStop's board granted his request on June 23 to remove a previously approved CEO performance award, a package that had the potential to be worth a substantial sum tied to the company's stock performance, with Cohen choosing to forgo that potential payout in order to keep leadership's attention focused squarely on advancing the eBay transaction.

That focus has come even as GameStop's core retail and collectibles business continues to show notable improvement. The company reported first-quarter results for the period ended May 2 showing net sales of $835.3 million, up 14% from $732.4 million a year earlier, driven largely by growth in trading cards and collectibles. Net income for the quarter came in at $389.6 million, the highest quarterly figure in company history, while operating income of $143.3 million also marked a first-quarter record. Adjusted net income totaled $179.3 million, and the company ended the quarter with total liquidity of $9.7 billion, including $8.4 billion in cash, marketable securities and related holdings. Selling, general and administrative expenses declined to $201.6 million from $228.1 million a year earlier, reflecting continued cost discipline across the business.

Building on that momentum, GameStop's board approved a new $2 billion share repurchase authorization on June 2, running through June 2, 2029 and replacing a prior buyback program that dated back to March 2019. Then, on June 26, the company issued formal guidance for its fiscal year ending Jan. 30, 2027, projecting adjusted EBITDA in excess of $600 million, compared with $345.4 million in fiscal 2025, a near doubling of that profitability measure. In the same announcement, GameStop reiterated that its leadership team remains focused on advancing the proposed eBay acquisition, even without any indication that eBay's board has reconsidered its rejection.

GameStop's broader business transformation has also included new ventures beyond traditional video game retail. The company launched Power Packs, a digital trading card platform, to the public on April 15, part of a wider push into collectibles that has become one of the more reliable growth drivers in its recent results. The company also continues to hold a notable balance of digital assets, including bitcoin, as part of its broader treasury strategy, a holding that contributed to GameStop's improved liquidity position highlighted in its first-quarter disclosures.

Wall Street's formal view of GameStop's stock remains skeptical despite the operational improvements. The most recent analyst rating tracked by TipRanks is a Sell, with a price target of $13.50, well below where the stock currently trades. An automated analysis from TipRanks' in-house model characterized GME as "Neutral" overall, citing positive fundamentals, including improved profitability and strong free cash flow, weighed against negative technical signals, with the stock trading below key moving averages and showing a negative reading on a widely used momentum indicator.

GameStop investors are also tracking a separate corporate action tied to the company's capital structure. The company distributed warrants to shareholders and certain convertible noteholders in October 2025, granting one warrant per 10 shares held as of early October, each exercisable for one additional share at a $32 cash strike price through Oct. 30, 2026. With GameStop shares currently trading well below that $32 exercise price, those warrants remain out of the money for now, though that could change if the stock's recent momentum continues or if developments in the eBay situation move shares meaningfully higher.

For now, GameStop's path forward hinges largely on two separate but related questions: whether the company's underlying retail and collectibles business can sustain the profitability gains shown in its most recent results, and whether Cohen's persistent campaign to acquire eBay, despite a clear rejection from that company's board, will eventually gain traction or instead remain an unrealized ambition that continues to dominate headlines surrounding the stock.