GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

Post by cj » Mon, May 04, 2026, 11:13 PM UTC

archon810 wrote: post #584

cj wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watched that interview live this AM and was so confused. The CEO looked annoyed and pissed the entire interview. Kept answering questions with “it’s on our website [awkward silence]” It almost seemed like he was incredibly hung over and didn’t sleep last night. But I got the feeling he was being a jerk on purpose. Still don’t understand why though.

The only guess I have, other than him being drunk, hungover, or high, is that he didn't want to admit or talk about GME dilution to fund the deal.

Post by 59percentmore » Mon, May 04, 2026, 11:24 PM UTC

Forgeties79 wrote: post #175

manwithnoplan wrote: post #25

A lot of the comments here seem to assume that a smaller public company can’t acquire a larger one, which just isn’t true. A quick search for how leveraged acquisitions, stock-for-stock deals, financing commitments, or tender offers work would answer most of the objections. Is it too much to ask the Hacker News commentariat to do one quick search before collectively declaring that something they don’t understand is i…

I imagine the vast majority of us do not have a problem understanding smaller companies can buy larger ones. Most of us are just incredulous that anyone is taking GameStop, especially Cohen, seriously.

Post by Forgeties79 » Mon, May 04, 2026, 11:32 PM UTC

potsandpans wrote: post #592

Forgeties79 wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some digging today and learned that he currently takes no salary and stands to make an unbelievable amount of money if he hits certain (pretty unreasonable apparently) benchmarks. I think it was $35 billion . My very armchair guess here is that he’s just trying something incredibly loud, brazen, and ambitious because at this point what else can you do? They’ve been falling apart for years, the business has not…

Could be. But he has to secure board approval for doing something like this. So he apparently was able to convince the GameStop bod that this is a reasonable play. One has to wonder if there's an unstated interested party ready to back the deal.

Post by jonny_eh » Mon, May 04, 2026, 11:40 PM UTC

CamelCaseName wrote: post #394

fasteo wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> should-be-illegal process of putting debt on the acquired company's balance sheet This is a basically a leveraged buyout (LBO). All private equity works this way. Yes, it should be illegal, or at least heavily limited. I highly recommend this book: "Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America"

I read that book, and my recommendation is to skip the third act, which is painfully repetitive. In fact, coming from a finance background, I didn't find the book in general to be particularly insightful, and much more ragebait / policy oriented (which makes sense given the author was a DOJ Antitrust prosecutor)

Post by giancarlostoro » Mon, May 04, 2026, 11:48 PM UTC

tech_jabroni wrote: post #398

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…

Ah, so Catherine Keener's "We Sell Your Stuff On eBay" store from The 40-Year-Old Virgin is back, and now it's worth $55B. Always knew she was a visionary.