GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay • Hacker News Board

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#691

Post by k33n » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:08 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #410

k33n wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even a cursory familiarity with the history of the industry shows both that this is untrue The modern trend of believing that “history” is made up of one or two things that everyone saw on the news is actually really entertaining. Definition of “cursory understanding” tbh. The banking industry, historically is far from stupid. This particular story is just basic PR driven market manipulation and has nothing to do w…

> The modern trend of believing that “history” is made up of one or two things that everyone saw on the news is actually really entertaining. It would be useful if you could provide a more detailed version of your argument. I don’t think you seriously believe that banks don’t make mistakes but the way this is written does sound like you’re saying it’s highly unlikely while ignoring the other half of the sentence you…

I think you’re missing a basic fact here. No bank has offered to finance this deal.

Furthermore, historically, banks generally don’t make mistakes. You can find news stories from over the years showing that some banks have made some mistakes, but that would only reinforce my general point about people confusing one or two things they see in the media with “history” as a whole.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#692

Post by solumunus » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:29 PM UTC

firebot wrote: post #411

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"

It's absolutely an LBO. The leverage is maximizing debt to equity. That debt is then transferred to the new entity. It's how they destroy companies while making billions in private profit. They over leverage them. Accrue debts. Sell of equity. Wash, rinse, repeat until bankrupt.

Ryan is committed to not taking a salary, unless this changes the only way he stands to gain is by doing the opposite of this and undressing the share price long term.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#693

Post by shaftway » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #630

shaftway wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ebay commissions are not that high, 13.25% for most items. 13.25% isn't zero. > The barrier to listing [is] the amount of labor it takes to list and price everything GameStop has a surprising amount of technology around their pawnshop activities. My son traded in his laptop last month and they had him wipe it, enable developer mode, and plug it in to do automated tests and make sure they knew what they were getting…

I'm just saying, 13.25% isn't the barrier here to making this work. And shipping things to a "GameStop near you" does not cost pennies, and most people hate having to pick up packages. The reason that can be cheaper for regular stores is because they're distributing from central warehouses to those stores anyways . If GameStop is holding inventory trapped in all these physical stores, shipping an item from one store…

Oh yeah, not a barrier, but for the volume they'd want to enable it's not a complete loss.

Remember who uses GameStop. It's certainly not me, and it's probably not you. I'd guess that their core demographic is 14-25 year olds that are cash-strapped. You don't go to a GameStop for the experience, and their prices aren't any better than any other retailer. You go there because you don't have options or for their secondary market. And at that point, $5 in shipping fees matters.

Why would it be edge --> edge and not edge --> central --> edge? For common stuff keep half of it at the edge for local sales. For uncommon stuff or the other half ship it back to central so they can re-ship it quickly and easily. Including something in a shipment is orders of magnitude cheaper than shipping a single item, just in packaging costs and time alone.

They must have items going both directions (to handle overstock, returns, defectives, etc.). I assume those all go in a large box and are shipped together. At that point I'd need to see some actual numbers to agree that it's not pennies.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#694

Post by SwellJoe » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

59percentmore wrote: post #686

SwellJoe wrote: post #636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you call a company with revenue that declines every year for a decade?

Shrinking. Which is smart, if you see a recession on the horizon or in-progress. If profit is increasing anyway? Well, that's either a miracle or someone who really knows what they're doing. You understand that profit is supposed to go DOWN when revenue declines, right? Which is bad. But Gamestop is doing the opposite. Which is...?

OK, great, they've maybe backed off of the iceberg that was sinking them, I guess through cost-cutting and layoffs. Good for them.

That doesn't mean it's a reasonable idea for GME to buy a company with ten times their revenue and five times their market cap, that hasn't been declining every year for a decade. This is a ridiculous stunt by a ridiculous CEO, and shouldn't be taken seriously. If somehow all the grownups did allow such a merger and the insane leverage that would be required, it would sink both companies.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#695

Post by xnx » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #678

xnx wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that bad? No one is forcing the lenders to make that bet, and the lenders can lose money if the acquired company can't pay back the loan.

You have a company "funded" with its own equity and now you turned it into a company exclusively made out of outside capital and an obligation to realize the terms of said outside capital. Before, you could have had bad years in-between the good years, now you're only permitted to have good years and by good years I mean years that honor the financing terms. When you understand this, you realize that functionally spe…

Why did the previous owners sell?

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#696

Post by Forgeties79 » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

turtlesdown11 wrote: post #690

59percentmore wrote: post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seasonally-adjusted EPS has been a consistent stair-step up for 2 years. Declining revenue does not matter; they're squeezing more profit out of the revenue that's left than they were out of the gobs of revenue they had before. That's just what a good business does. >You’re picking one single metric It's THE metric. And you are, too (a single metric, but not THE metric). >The whole story is very rough for them right…

> Declining revenue does not matter When the revenue goes to zero, how much of that pie will be profit? The industry they're in is dying quite quickly, and there are no other revenue centers. The high margin business they had was reselling physical game media. This is the same story as other dead physical media, CD's, DVDs, etc. It's going to continue to decline, and GME has no pipeline of future revenue. They contin…

Totally agree with your take here.

Also, “revenue isn’t important” (sic) is a wild statement to me and indicative of the state of US businesses these days. The stock is the product, that is it, and a shocking number of people have no issue with that while also saying the US needs to bring back manufacturing and build things again.

If investor (and now government with AI projects) money is being funneled into businesses that are ultimately just about their stocks and not producing anything, what will be the result of all that investment? What are we not investing in as a result?

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#697

Post by PearlRiver » Tue, May 05, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

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…

Yep this is exactly it. So many people with their childhood nostalgia not understanding that GameStop are and always have been a pawnshop.

Deadbeat dad selling their kids videogames to buy meth.

The pawnshop industry is incredibly depressing but it has been around for millennia and they will always be around.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#698

Post by arcticbull » Tue, May 05, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

59percentmore wrote: post #687

arcticbull wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the 10Y. Still crap. No matter how you look at it this company is a dog.

I am? Last reported quarter was their 10Y high. The Q4 before that is in the top 5. And it's been positive for almost 2 years, whereas before, it had been negative for several. >No matter how you look at it this company is a dog. Yeah, Krypto. It's flying.

Apparently we have different definitions of flying. They sold a bunch of stock, bought treasuries and shut down some money sink stores. Amazing stuff. Apparently if I just buy treasuries and stop wasting money on garbage my stock should sore too.

This is such a weird religion.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#699

Post by PearlRiver » Tue, May 05, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

iinnPP wrote: post #501

delfinom wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People trying to sell their used junk aren't going to accept a 30-40% cut. It's why they aren't using eBay these days in the first place.

Speak for yourself. There's a reason places like Once Upon a Child and their parent stores exist. There's even other entirely digital stores on the sell for pennies instead of donating market. People are broke. Just not everyone.

Spending days of negotiating on eBay with annoying strangers and packing it all up for a few lousy hundred is not my idea of a good time.

Let the workers at the recycling center sift through the stuff they are welcome to it.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#700

Post by snapcaster » Tue, May 05, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

59percentmore wrote: post #687

arcticbull wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the 10Y. Still crap. No matter how you look at it this company is a dog.

I am? Last reported quarter was their 10Y high. The Q4 before that is in the top 5. And it's been positive for almost 2 years, whereas before, it had been negative for several. >No matter how you look at it this company is a dog. Yeah, Krypto. It's flying.

What's your financial position with regards to gamestop?