{"id":27700,"date":"2026-05-12T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/27700\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:00:22","slug":"ebay-rejects-gamestop-takeover-bid-neither-credible-nor-attractive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/27700\/","title":{"rendered":"EBay rejects GameStop takeover bid: &#8216;Neither credible nor attractive&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-videoThumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/108305498-17785843011778584297-45884411765-1080pnbcnews.jpg\" alt=\"EBay rejects GameStop&#x2019;s $56 billion takeover bid\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/EBAY\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EBay<\/a> on Tuesday rejected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/GME\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GameStop<\/a>&#8216;s $56 billion takeover proposal, calling the unsolicited bid &#8220;neither credible nor attractive.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>GameStop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/04\/gamestop-ebay-takeover-bid-ryan-cohen-gaming-retail-ecommerce.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CEO Ryan Cohen<\/a> last week unveiled an audacious bid for eBay, offering to acquire the online marketplace for $125 per share in a cash-and-stock deal. EBay is much larger than the video game retailer, with a market cap of just over $48 billion, while GameStop&#8217;s is roughly $10.3 billion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Board, with the support of its independent advisors, has thoroughly reviewed your proposal and has determined to reject it,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/ebay-rejects-unsolicited-proposal-from-gamestop-302769000.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Paul Pressler<\/a>, the chairman of eBay&#8217;s board, wrote in a letter. &#8220;We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>GameStop didn&#8217;t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>EBay listed several concerns with GameStop&#8217;s offer, including &#8220;the uncertainty regarding your financing proposal,&#8221; along with operational risks and the debt load that would result from the proposed transaction. <\/p>\n<p>Cohen said GameStop had lined up a $20 billion financing commitment from TD Securities, part of TD Bank, and the company has about $9 billion in cash on hand, but the funding gap remains substantial. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1065088\/000155278126000322\/e26249_ex99-1.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">financing letter<\/a>, released by eBay on Tuesday and which is not binding, stated that TD&#8217;s expression of confidence assumes that the combined company maintains an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/07\/ryan-cohens-mysterious-bank-letter-backing-his-ebay-bid-reveals-a-big-issue.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">investment-grade credit<\/a> profile from at least two of the top three ratings agencies. CNBC previously reported TD&#8217;s letter included that key condition. <\/p>\n<p>Moody&#8217;s Ratings said last week that the proposed acquisition would be &#8220;credit negative&#8221; for eBay because of the substantial increase in leverage implied by the deal structure. <\/p>\n<p>Many Wall Street analysts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/04\/gamestop-unlikely-to-pull-off-ebay-deal-analysts-say.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">threw cold water<\/a> on the deal, citing a lack of meaningful synergies between the two companies. Cohen also made an awkward and at times combative appearance on CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Squawk Box,&#8221; where he offered few details on how he would finance the deal. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are offering half cash, half stock, and we have the ability to issue stock in order to get the deal done,&#8221; Cohen said. &#8220;But the full details of the offer are on our website. We&#8217;ll see what happens.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cohen said he was prepared to take the offer directly to shareholders if eBay declined to engage. <\/p>\n<p>In his proposal, Cohen pledged to operate eBay &#8220;a lot more efficiently,&#8221; including trimming headcount and slashing its marketing spend, which he suggested had become bloated under CEO Jamie Iannone without leading to user growth.<\/p>\n<p>He also said GameStop&#8217;s 1,600 U.S. retail stores could be used to authenticate and fulfill eBay orders, and serve as hubs for live commerce. <\/p>\n<p>EBay wrote in its letter that it remains confident in its current management team and that its business has &#8220;delivered meaningful results&#8221; over the past several years. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have sharpened our strategic focus, strengthened execution, enhanced our marketplace and seller experience, and consistently returned capital to shareholders,&#8221; eBay wrote. <\/p>\n<p>The company, whose shares are up 24% year to date, has been in the middle of a turnaround effort. Under Iannone, eBay has doubled down on so-called &#8220;focus categories,&#8221; like trading cards, collectibles and used luxury goods, as a way to differentiate itself from larger rivals like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/AMZN\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CNBC&#8217;s Yun Li contributed reporting to this article.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-videoThumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/108301450-17778934171777893414-45698958890-1080pnbcnews.jpg\" alt=\"GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen $56B eBay offer: 'An opportunity to build a much larger business'\"\/>Stock Chart IconStock chart icon<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static-redesign.cnbcfm.com\/dist\/a54b41835a8b60db28c2.svg\" class=\"Collapsible-dismissButton\" alt=\"hide content\"\/><\/p>\n<p>GameStop and eBay year-to-date stock chart.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EBay on Tuesday rejected GameStop&#8216;s $56 billion takeover proposal, calling the unsolicited bid &#8220;neither credible nor attractive.&#8221; GameStop&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1124,560,34,14832,7372,8,561,9,14218,199,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-27700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-amazon-com-inc","9":"tag-breaking-news-technology","10":"tag-business-news","11":"tag-ebay-inc","12":"tag-gamestop-corp","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-internet","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-ryan-cohen","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116561970692843184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}