U.S. video game retailer GameStop announced Sunday it has made an unsolicited, non-binding offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share in a cash-and-stock deal, valuing the e-commerce platform at roughly $55.5 billion.
The offer, split evenly between cash and GameStop common stock, represents a 20% premium to eBay's Friday close of $104.07, and a 46% premium to its closing price on Feb. 4 â when the gaming retail giant started building a stake in the company, GameStop said in its statement.
Shares of eBay surged as much as 13.4% in after-hours trading to around $118. GameStop, which became a so-called "meme stock" during a 2021 retail frenzy that drove sharp gains in its shares, jumped around 4% to $27.6 per share.
The announcement came as GameStop Chief Executive Ryan Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that he saw a path to make the e-commerce company a much bigger competitor to Amazon.com.
"EBay should be worth â and will be worth â a lot more money," Cohen said. "I'm thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars."
GameStop has built a roughly 5% stake in eBay and secured a commitment letter from TD Bank for up to $20 billion in debt financing to make the deal possible, according to its statement. The remainder of the deal would be funded from its approximately $9.4 billion cash pile.
The proposal is subject to approval from eBay's board of directors, regulators, and shareholders from both companies. EBay did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Both companies have struggled to adapt to shifting consumer preferences, and it remains unclear whether eBay's board will view GameStop â whose own market capitalization stood at roughly $11 billion before the news broke â as a credible acquirer for a company four times its size.
GameStop had a market value of $12 billion while eBay was much larger at around $46 billion, as of Friday, according to LSEG data, raising questions about the feasibility of the bid.
Cohen told the Journal he is prepared to take the offer directly to shareholders in a proxy fight if necessary. Should the deal close, Cohen is expected to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the combined company, according to GameStop's statement.
In its offer, GameStop said it would cut $2 billion in annual costs within a year, targeting eBay's bloated sales and marketing budget, which totaled $2.4 billion in fiscal 2025 while net active buyer growth remained flat at less than 0.75%.
"More spend is not producing more users on a marketplace with near-universal brand recognition," the statement said.
The company projected that cost reductions alone would lift eBay's earnings per share, measured under standard U.S. accounting rules, to $7.79 from $4.26 in the first year.
GameStop also pitched its roughly 1,600 U.S. retail stores as physical infrastructure for eBay's marketplace, offering a network for authentication, intake, fulfillment, and live commerce capabilities.
Cohen first hinted in January at plans to acquire a publicly traded consumer company larger than GameStop, telling CNBC at the time that the deal would be "transformational" and "never been done before within the history of the capital markets."
