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GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

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Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#271

Post by dgellow »

twoodfin wrote: post #243
sbarre wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the problem of all the employees (and potentially customers) of the company being plundered. They have no say in the matter, and given that the lender can probably absorb the loss without, you know, missing mortgage payments or losing health insurance, I would absolutely argue it's not just their problem. You can certainly hold the opinion that "it's just business" but it feels like an unnecessary part of busine…

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the US employment model. Businesses can do all sorts of dumb things that end up making them unable to continue to invest in employees. The check against that is the greedy owners. Regulations designed to ensure businesses never take risky bets lest they have to lay people off would be a nightmare of unintended consequences and surely in aggregate hurt employment.

I assume the person you answered is saying that level of risk taking should be regulated. Not that no level of risk should be allowed if they have to fire people. Surely there is a point where you want some guardrails, so the C-suite has to at least take in account their employees as part of their risk assessment

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#272

Post by shmatt »

andruby wrote: post #260
sheepscreek wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking a $20b loan from TD Bank + sitting on $9b CASH + GameStop stock for the rest. They’ve made an interesting proposal around using 1600 GameStop locations for fulfilment. Smart if they can make it work. Update: Numbers still don’t add to $55b - I think there’s a $14b shortfall. Not sure about how they are planning to fund that.

A company doesn't need $55bn to buy a $55bn company. They can issue new GME shares and exchange $EBAY for $GME. These are sometimes called "stock-for-stock" transactions

Except a sudden dilution usually tanks the stock by the exact % its diluting

So GME dilutes by 20%, stock price immediately goes down by 20%. its not some infinite money hack

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#273

Post by triceratops »

shmatt wrote: post #268
taeric wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it is functionally the same as home loans? Would you be proposing a carve out that buying a house or car is ok this way, but nothing else?

Home owns are owned by people, not the home itself. If someone fails to pay a loan, their own credit score will be impacted For these PE loans, its the new company that takes on the debt, not the buyer. Essentially any broke person can "afford" any trillion dollar company this way

There are other categories of real estate loans where the debt is against the property itself. The lender evaluates the property's income and expenses when underwriting the loan.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#274

Post by knowaveragejoe »

pjc50 wrote: post #262
giancarlostoro wrote: post #240

The original shorting of GameStop back in 2021 gave them a bit of a boost back into the green. While people were doing the GME to the moon, GameStop made more shares to sell, and paid off a bit of its debts, I think it made about a billion dollars in profit, they're still struggling, but it helped prolong their life. A friend of mine also pointed out and this made it click for me that it makes 100% sense, GameStop is…

> and then they list it on eBay and turn a bit of a profit with a local pickup option available Sort of wondering why nobody did this already. I know that the better charity shops do this with rare and unusual books/records. The UK equivalent CeX has an online offering through webuy.com, which appears to be a Chinese owned multinational.

This is called consignment and is an industry unto itself, usually for antiques since you need a lot of space. You give them your goods and they sell them. You get a cut if they actually sell.

I'm surprised nobody has really mentioned this in the thread. Does anybody remember the "trade in anything" day GameStop just had? https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/12/08/gamestop-tra...

Obviously they're going to need to liquidate a lot of this stuff. It can be quite lucrative if done right. You're basically getting inventory for free.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#276

Post by gorbachev »

jfengel wrote: post #109
vessenes wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is, literally, nothing fishy about this offer. It’s a cash and stock offer from a public company to public company shareholders. We could call the financial or shareholder benefits to ebay dubious (I don’t hold any opinion about this) but this is a very aggressive offer, and allows the chance for GME to keep some cash - if enough shareholders of ebay opt for stock, then they’ll have cash available after. Plus t…

TD Bank also believes it will work, i.e. return them a profit. They've seen the detailed plans and I haven't. But they're the ones with real skin in the game. It seems like an opportunity for them to lose their shirts. So yeah, eBay shareholders should take TD Bank's free money and run.

TD Bank is the perfect lender for this.

https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-assesses-re...

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#277

Post by matwood »

boringg wrote: post #236
consp wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the modern world if you are a bank you will be bailed out eventually, thus your problem becoming everyone's problem.

Ah-hem SVB?

SVB was not bailed out. Depositors were made whole (as they should be), but shareholders were completely wiped out (as they should have been).

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#278

Post by happyopossum »

metalliqaz wrote: post #264
dgellow wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the point of eBay was to get rid of that middleman. Wouldn’t that be something eBay would have done at some point if they wanted to own a pawnshop? Not saying that cannot work but that doesn’t sound like a genius idea

Yes, exactly. In fact there were some ebay "helper" companies that made a go of it in the early 2000's. They went out of business because it doesn't add enough value. USPS created Media Mail and flat rate boxes, and UPS stores are found in nearly every community. They handle the hard part (shipping) well enough. The only thing I can think of is Gamestop positioning to become a clearing house for fan swag or gaming it…

> USPS created Media Mail

Umm, that’s been around since 1938, which is a few years before the era you’re talking about…

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#280

Post by dgellow »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #158
fontain wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cohen is already rich rich, his GameStop compensation doesn’t really matter much. The eBay acquisition could be a strategy to juice his compensation but I think it is much more likely he does believe that he can achieve his stated aims, which will financially benefit him much more in the long term.

Few CEO’s in the US are rewarded for longterm thinking when there are unsustainable quarterly gains to be made. GameStop also has a strange history, especially the last decade, that no one could possibly describe as “cautious” or “planning longterm.” I also can’t name a single CEO who had the mentality of “I’m rich enough to make personal/financial sacrifices for the good of the company.” That’s simply not how things…

Nintendo CEO cutting his salary in half to avoid firing employees

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-sal...

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