GameStop announced an unsolicited offer at $125 per share to acquire eBay, valuing the platform at $55.5 billion, a 46% premium. The group, which has a 5% stake, offers mixed financing (cash and shares) supported by $20 billion in debt, while mentioning direct recourse to shareholders in the event of refusal.
Led by its CEO Ryan Cohen, the operation aims to transform GameStop into a central player in recommerce by relying on eBay as a global platform. The objective is to combine physical infrastructure and digital marketplace: the 1,600 GameStop stores would become authentication, collection and logistics points, in order to structure an integrated offer facing Amazon and platforms like Vinted.
But the financial imbalance remains major: GameStop (around $12 billion in valuation) is trying to buy a group almost four times larger, even though eBay is posting 18% growth in its business volume and increasing profitability. The operation is thus similar to an attempt at a strategic pivot, where the valuation inherited from the same stock phenomenon would be mobilized to finance an industrial repositioning.
