Is GameStop Going to Acquire eBay? Where the $55.5 Billion Hostile Bid Stands Now

GameStop Corp.'s pursuit of e-commerce giant eBay remains one of the most closely watched and contentious corporate sagas in the market right now, with Chief Executive Ryan Cohen escalating his stake in the company even as eBay's board has firmly rejected the offer and Wall Street analysts remain deeply skeptical the deal will ever close.

The Original Proposal

GameStop Corp. submitted a non-binding proposal on May 3, 2026, to acquire 100% of eBay Inc. at $125.00 per share in cash and stock. The offer represented a 46% premium to eBay's unaffected closing price on February 4, 2026, the day GameStop began accumulating its position in eBay. GameStop disclosed it had built a 5% economic stake in eBay through derivatives and beneficial ownership of common stock.

The proposed offer comprised 50% cash and 50% GameStop common stock, with full shareholder election rights as to consideration type and pro-rata allocation. Aggregate undiluted equity value was approximately $55.5 billion, based on eBay's most recently disclosed undiluted share count, representing a 27% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price and a 36% premium to the 90-day volume-weighted average price.

The cash consideration was expected to be funded from a combination of cash and liquid investments on GameStop's balance sheet, which totaled approximately $9.4 billion as of January 31, 2026, and third-party acquisition financing, for which GameStop received a highly-confident letter from TD Securities for up to $20 billion.

eBay's Firm Rejection

eBay's board responded to the unsolicited proposal with a swift and pointed rejection. eBay Chairman Paul Pressler called the unsolicited offer "neither credible nor attractive" in a sharply worded letter to Cohen.

Despite that rejection, Cohen pressed forward, taking the campaign directly to eBay's shareholders rather than backing down. GameStop's CEO has publicly stated he's prepared to engage in a proxy fight and take the offer directly to shareholders if eBay declines the acquisition.

Wall Street's Skeptical Verdict

Analysts covering both companies have generally responded to the proposed deal with significant doubt about both its strategic logic and its likelihood of success. GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders described the proposal as "a David trying to take over a Goliath in order to buy David relevance," adding that eBay has a clear proposition while GameStop is "grappling with a reason to be around."

That skepticism has been reflected directly in betting markets tracking the deal's likelihood of completion. Prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket had placed deal-completion odds between 17% and 20% as of mid-May.

Credit rating agencies have also weighed in with concerns about the deal's financial structure. Moody's Ratings said the proposed acquisition would be "credit negative" for eBay — a rating assessment that cuts directly against a key precondition in GameStop's financing arrangement. The TD Securities financing letter conditions its commitment on the combined company maintaining an investment-grade credit rating from at least two of the top three ratings agencies.

Cohen Continues Escalating His Position

Rather than retreating in the face of eBay's rejection and Wall Street's skepticism, Cohen has continued building GameStop's economic exposure to eBay in the weeks since the initial proposal. A regulatory filing disclosed on June 5, 2026, that GameStop's economic exposure to eBay had risen to approximately 9%. GameStop had previously increased its eBay stake to about 7%, up from around 5%, while continuing a hostile pursuit that eBay's board has so far rejected.

That escalation carried added significance from a regulatory standpoint. The increase coincided with satisfaction of the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period on June 3, 2026, which made the eBay put/call derivative contracts eligible for physical share settlement for the first time.

Notably, this is not Cohen's first brush with HSR compliance issues. In September 2024, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Cohen had agreed to pay a $985,320 civil penalty to settle charges that his earlier acquisition of Wells Fargo securities violated the HSR Act by failing to make the required pre-acquisition notification.

A $2 Billion Buyback Alongside the Bid

GameStop has paired its pursuit of eBay with a significant capital return initiative for its own shareholders, a move that has been interpreted by some as a vote of confidence in the company's underlying financial strength even amid the contentious takeover battle. GameStop's board unanimously approved a discretionary $2 billion share repurchase authorization on June 2, 2026, running through June 2, 2029. The program replaces the prior authorization from March 2019.

That announcement, paired with strong underlying financial results, helped lift GameStop's stock significantly. Shares of GameStop jumped 10% to around $23 after the video game retailer posted its highest quarterly net income on record and approved the fresh buyback. Meanwhile, takeover target eBay was barely moving, with eBay stock up less than 1% to around $109.36 as traders digested GameStop's continued pursuit.

The juxtaposition of the hostile bid and the buyback has prompted analysts to reconsider the broader strategic narrative driving GameStop's recent decisions. For GameStop, combining a hostile eBay bid with a $2 billion buyback is a clear signal that capital deployment is moving to the center of the story. The eBay approach would push GameStop far deeper into online marketplaces, closer to companies like Etsy and Amazon, and could reshape how investors think about its exposure to e-commerce and payments.

The Financial Backdrop Supporting the Bid

GameStop's underlying financial performance has provided Cohen with additional ammunition to defend the strategic rationale behind pursuing eBay, even as the company's core retail business remains far smaller than the e-commerce giant it is attempting to acquire. The buyback authorization sits alongside first-quarter fiscal 2026 sales of $835.3 million and net income of $389.6 million, a large jump from $44.8 million a year earlier.

Part of GameStop's case for the acquisition rests on identifying inefficiencies in eBay's current spending. eBay spent $2.4 billion on Sales & Marketing in fiscal 2025 while only adding one million net active buyers, growing from 134 million to 135 million users — a net increase of less than 0.75%. GameStop has pledged $2.0 billion of annualized cost reductions within twelve months of closing, including reducing Sales & Marketing spend from $2.4 billion to $1.2 billion.

Where Things Stand Now

As of the most recent filings, the deal remains squarely unresolved, with no indication that either side is prepared to change its position in the near term. The status of the proposed acquisition remains pending approval from eBay, shareholders, and regulators.

With eBay's board having firmly rejected the offer and Cohen continuing to build his economic stake in the company in the weeks since, the central question facing investors is whether GameStop will escalate into a formal proxy fight aimed at putting the decision directly in front of eBay shareholders, bypassing the board entirely. Given the deep skepticism from credit rating agencies, prediction markets, and Wall Street analysts about both the deal's financing structure and its underlying strategic logic, the path to an actual completed acquisition appears far from certain — but Cohen's continued accumulation of eBay shares suggests he has no immediate plans to abandon the pursuit, regardless of how steep the odds against success may currently appear.