GameStop Stock Ticks Higher Today as Ryan Cohen Drops $35 Billion Pay Package to Clear Path for eBay Bid

GameStop shares edged higher Thursday morning, climbing 30 cents, or 1.33%, to $22.93, as investors continued to digest a string of corporate moves by Chief Executive Ryan Cohen that have reshaped the narrative around the video game retailer's unsolicited pursuit of eBay even as the e-commerce giant's board has maintained its rejection of the proposed takeover.

The session's advance follows a week of active trading driven almost entirely by company-specific news rather than broader market sentiment. The most consequential of those moves was Cohen's decision to withdraw a massive performance pay package from consideration ahead of the company's July 7 annual meeting. The package involved 171.5 million stock options with a ten-year term, structured across nine tranches tied to market capitalization and adjusted EBITDA milestones, with a theoretical maximum payout that could have approached $35 billion if GameStop hit every target. Cohen requested the cancellation of the shareholder vote on that plan, a decision that removed a significant conflict-of-interest optic that critics had begun raising publicly.

The concern was straightforward: if GameStop completed the eBay acquisition, a combined company would push the retailer materially closer to the market cap and EBITDA thresholds required to unlock portions of Cohen's performance award, creating the appearance that the deal served his personal financial interests in addition to corporate strategy. By pulling the pay package off the table entirely, Cohen pre-empted that line of attack and signaled to eBay shareholders, the audience he needs to influence most, that his motivation for the acquisition is strategic rather than personally enriching.

That decision has been accompanied by reports that Cohen is prepared to personally invest $500 million in the proposed transaction, a demonstration of executive conviction that analysts and market observers have cited as a meaningful signal of how seriously the GameStop chief is pursuing a deal that eBay's board has already declined once. Cohen has now effectively bypassed the board entirely, attempting to make his case directly to eBay's shareholders rather than continuing to seek board-level engagement, a strategy that mirrors shareholder activism tactics long associated with activist investors seeking to pressure corporate leadership into accepting terms they initially resisted.

GameStop's formal offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share, structured as a combination of cash and GameStop common stock, remains outstanding. The proposal values eBay's undiluted equity at approximately $55.5 billion and was submitted May 3, with eBay's board characterizing it as neither credible nor attractive in the days following its receipt. GameStop has continued building its economic exposure to eBay since then, with the company's combined stake through direct share ownership and cash-settled option contracts now representing roughly 9.8% of eBay's outstanding shares, a figure significant enough to give GameStop a meaningful voice should any formal shareholder vote on the transaction's terms ever be organized.

Financing the proposed deal has remained one of the most frequently asked questions surrounding the pursuit's credibility. GameStop has pointed to approximately $9.4 billion in cash and liquid investments on its own balance sheet, supplemented by a financing letter from TD Securities covering up to an additional $20 billion, as the combined pool of capital the company would draw on to complete a deal at the proposed price. Even accounting for those resources, completing a transaction at the scale of the eBay proposal would require GameStop to navigate substantial integration, regulatory and financial complexities that some analysts have continued to characterize as formidable.

Against that backdrop, GameStop's improving underlying financial performance has continued to provide the stock with a floor that would not have existed even 18 months ago. The company's most recent quarterly results, covering the first quarter ended May 2, showed net sales of $835.3 million, up 14% year-over-year, driven by continued growth in trading cards and collectibles. Net income for the quarter reached $389.6 million, the highest in company history, while operating income of $143.3 million set a first-quarter record. The company reaffirmed and subsequently raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to above $600 million for fiscal 2026, nearly double the $345.4 million reported in fiscal 2025, a figure that, if achieved, would represent a dramatic improvement in the underlying profitability of the core retail and collectibles business.

The company's adjusted EBITDA guidance of more than $600 million for fiscal 2026 means it now trades at a forward enterprise value to EBITDA multiple of approximately 9.6 times, which multiple sources covering the stock have noted sits slightly below the retail sector average of roughly 10.1 times, an unusual configuration for a company that has historically traded at a substantial premium to fundamentals due to its meme stock history.

Thursday's modest gain also follows a filing disclosure on July 1 under SEC Form 144, which indicates a company insider has filed notice of an intended sale of restricted or control securities. The filing, which does not constitute a sale confirmation but rather a preliminary notice of planned activity, has circulated among market watchers tracking insider activity surrounding the stock.

GameStop also launched its Power Packs digital trading card platform earlier in 2026, adding a direct-to-consumer digital collectibles offering to a business that has increasingly oriented itself around the physical collectibles and trading card market rather than the traditional video game retail category that built the brand across its more than two decades of operation. The company continues to hold a position in bitcoin as part of its treasury strategy and operates an on-market share buyback program authorized for up to $2 billion through June 2029.

For now, Thursday's slight advance reflects a market that remains engaged with the eBay narrative, even without fresh deal developments, while the stock continues to trade at the intersection of its improving fundamental story and the speculative overlay created by one of corporate America's most closely watched attempted hostile takeovers.