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eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

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Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#161
post #16

As a avid eBay customer I am pretty relieved. I buy 2-3 items a month and was selling for the last 2 years on the platform. It's come such a long way and is really a great, streamlined experience. Of course I'm sure folks that make their living off their stores & sales will have different opinions, but I'd say as a routine customer and seller it doesn't need an external company's takeover pressure on it.

Hard agree. I am an eBay seller and this had me thinking actively about what I'd have to do if they went under or stopped offering a quality service.

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#162

I thought gamestop was in financial trouble a few years back, how can they afford 56 billion?

GameStop is a zombie company. As a retailer, they have been floundering for years and still are. But as a corporation, they are sitting on a lot of cash and zero debt, from the early-pandemic period they went through as an overvalued meme stock.

They can't afford $56 billion - the proposed acquisition was going to be halfway paid for in stock and halfway via a loan. (Though, they also can't afford $28B in stock - the entire company is only worth $10B - so the idea was going to be to pay for it by issuing new shares of the merged GameStop-Ebay entity, after the deal was signed.)

If that sounds audacious, it's because it is - as far as I've seen, most analysts were not expecting this deal to be taken seriously, and many are calling it a publicity stunt.

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would admit that when I had first heard the news (from hackernews) and read its comments, people gave multiple examples and convuluted examples on how this all makes sense and the financial aspects. I was left feeling impressed that perhaps gamestop might've been thinking something new. Then I watched the video. > I would trust that guy to make a sandwich. Don't worry, we are just trusting him with around a measly…

This is because the community around Gamestop is radicalized by the exact same grievance culture behind the MAGA movement. It even started conveniently in January of 2021, at a point of MAGA's seeming obsolescence. The adherents of this movement have already accepted the final result as guaranteed, and literally every piece of news the world over gets interpreted through the lens of this eventuality that Gamestock's…

They have an entire library regarding their "due diligence" by the way

It's pre-ChatGPT, so people actually wrote all this out (they are reddit posts disguised as books)

https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kosyg

Also an fun long form video for anyone interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pYeoZaoWrA

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#164
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could maybe see this argument in 2018 or something In 2026? Online shopping is full of low quality knockoff crap, with deveptive listings that are trying to trick you. Yes, I absolutely prefer physical stores again. In fact I've pretty much stopped online shopping altogether again

Okay, but Gamestop has very little of the benefits of physical stores, you're not going to inspect the quality of the games without loading it into your machine, and the major auxiliary purchase available for sale is a bunch of Funko Pops.

Gamestop sells a lot more collectables than just Funko Pops. I'm not a collector myself, but if I were I imagine I would prefer to see the thing in person to make sure of its condition before buying.

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#165
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I've never thought that that was the win that people seem to think it is. When you're that high up in the company, you have so much stock that you can pretty easily get loans against for however much you need, and write off the interest in the process.

What U.S. tax code provision allows an individual to write off (non-primary-mortgage) loan interest?

Can't you write off capital losses? I've been able to deduct margin interest from my capital gains.

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#166
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This movie isn't over yet. We'll have to wait and see if GameStop goes full 80's on them with a hostile takeover attempt.

GME had already acquired ~5% of Ebay shares ahead of the offer.

He actually didn't. The majority of that was in options. So he "controlled" 5% via derivatives but this is not the same as owning shares.

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish we would normalize people just running a business well and taking a damned salary.

You want to normalize low ambitions?

unironically, yes. go get good at tetris if you need a high score for personal validation.

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#169
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither is GameStop

Thats not my point. Shinning a light on what eBay could be vs what it is.

Pot calling the kettle black. It'd be like Barney Gumble telling Boris Yeltsin what a great president he could be if he cut out the drinking.

Re: eBay Rejects GameStop's $56B Takeover as Not Credible

#170
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gamestop turning into an eBay storefront makes a lot of sense to me and this seemed to be a very rational step to take when the short squeeze anomaly left them with billions in the bank and a business model that no longer makes very much sense with physical game sales being eaten by digital-only sales along with the potential decline of the console. They already have the position of used buying and sales, extending t…

I've yet to see a convincing vision of what an eBay physical store looks like that doesn't kind of boil down to a UPS store. The vast majority of their business comes from 3rd party listings and the only real stock they have and sell are in the eBay refurbished line. I'm really not convinced of what a successful eBay store would even be there for. I've seen some say for authentication but staffing employees able to p…

>I've yet to see a convincing vision of what an eBay physical store looks like that doesn't kind of boil down to a UPS store.

Pawn shop for nerds/the middle class.

They could build AI to help authentication and just identifying sellers would help tremendously with fraud.

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