GameStop (GME) CEO Ryan Cohen is not backing down. He wants to buy eBay (EBAY) and is prepared to take the case directly to the company shareholders if the board keeps saying no.
For investors trying to figure out whether this is a serious acquisition or a headline grab, the answer is increasingly the former. The numbers on GameStop's balance sheet suggest Cohen has the firepower to make this deal happen.
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www.barchart.com Why Cohen Believes eBay Is His to Transform
Cohen recently appeared on Anthony Pompliano's podcast, "From the Desk of Anthony Pompliano," to lay out his thinking in plain terms. He described eBay as the second-largest e-commerce asset in the United States and argued that it is deeply "under earning" given its scale and brand recognition.
eBay spent over $2.4 billion on sales and marketing in fiscal 2025, yet added fewer than 1 million net active buyers. That is a growth rate of less than 0.75% on a base of 134 million users. A marketplace with near-universal brand awareness should not need to spend that kind of money to barely move the needle.
Cohen, whose Chewy (CHWY) background gives him e-commerce credibility, says he can cut $2 billion in annual costs within 12 months of closing. That alone would push eBay's diluted earnings-per-share from $4.26 to $7.79.
His target is to reduce spending by roughly $1.2 billion in sales and marketing, $300 million in product development, and $500 million in general and administrative overhead. "E-commerce is in my wheelhouse, and there's no asset in my view that has as much potential as eBay," Cohen said on Pompliano's show.
www.barchart.com Does GameStop Have the Cash to Fund the Acquisition?
GME's balance sheet as of January 2026 shows total cash and cash equivalents of roughly $9.4 billion. That is up sharply from $4.8 billion the prior year, and a world away from the $508 million the company held in January 2021. Short-term investments added another $2.7 billion to that figure.
Total current assets came in at just over $10 billion, while total assets reached $10.4 billion. On the liabilities side, long-term debt jumped to $4.16 billion in January 2026, a notable increase largely tied to the $4.2 billion in convertible notes GameStop raised at a 0% coupon rate. Total liabilities stood at $4.94 billion, leaving shareholders' equity of $5.44 billion.
The net picture: GameStop is sitting on a fortress balance sheet for a company of its size. It has minimal legacy debt burden given the zero-coupon structure, substantial liquid assets, and a financing commitment of up to $20 billion from TD Securities.
The proposed deal values eBay at roughly $55.5 billion on an undiluted basis. Cohen's cash on hand covers part of the down payment. The rest relies on the financing commitment and GameStop stock as currency.
Cohen Is Committed and Undeterred
eBay's board rejected the proposal, calling it “not credible or attractive.” Cohen pushed back on that framing directly. He argued the rejection was predictable because the deal is unattractive to the current leadership team, who would be replaced. In his view, the offer is quite attractive to eBay's actual shareholders.
"We're going to do whatever we obviously need to do in order to bring this proposal in front of the true owners of the business," Cohen said on Pompliano's podcast.
He also pointed out that he receives no salary at GameStop, no cash bonuses, and no golden parachute. Cohen owns about 9% of GameStop stock, and his payday is tied to building shareholder value, creating an incentive structure uncommon among CEOs.
Cohen turned GameStop from a company posting a $381 million net loss in fiscal 2021 into one generating $418 million in net income in fiscal 2025. Selling, general and administrative (SG&A) dropped by roughly $800 million, or 47%, over that same period.
Cohen still needs to win over eBay's shareholders, navigate regulatory scrutiny, and execute a turnaround at a company far larger than GameStop's current operations. But dismissing this bid outright would be a mistake, given Cohen’s track record.
On the date of publication, Aditya Raghunath did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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