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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

#171

Post by projektfu »

xp84 wrote: post #109
colechristensen wrote: post #5

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 think you’re right about Kmart/Sears, though the interesting thing was that Lampert was correct that Sears had a great deal of real estate which had tremendous value. If someone skilled at retail had bought it, they could have used the money from selling some of that, to fix the business. Of course, Lampert was only skilled at finance and RE and very obviously just planned to gently wind down the business while sel…

And really you could say that Discover killed it, because they lost focus on the core (or legacy?) business.

Still, department stores in the US are nothing like they were in their heyday.

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

#172

Post by Hilliard_Ohiooo »

dawnerd wrote: post #49
qrush wrote: 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.

As a seller I'm also relieved. Ebay has gotten bad but I can't even imagine how Gamestop would squeeze sellers.

Exactly, especially if they have to immediately start repaying $10's of billions in debt that GameStop wanted to put them in. Whole thing is just dumb of the CEO.

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

#173

Post by happymellon »

sushid wrote: post #107
happymellon wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Old computer stuff at least once a month. So, collectables...

How did you determine that? As someone who also buys old computer stuff from time to time, I wouldn't say they are collectibles.

Sorry, a bit cheeky but if you are regularly buying old computer hardware then you are collecting.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I still have my ZX Spectrum 48k, Atari ST and the Archimedes my parent acquired when the school was dumping them for PCs.

It's a collection.

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

#174

Post by happymellon »

benj111 wrote: post #114
sushid wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you determine that? As someone who also buys old computer stuff from time to time, I wouldn't say they are collectibles.

There's collectables as in over priced stuff and collectables as in what ever you like to collect. I think the former is more useful, and the latter could be anything. The GGP was probably thinking the former, the GP being pedantic used the latter.

> the GP being pedantic used the latter.

I was aiming for sassy.

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

#175

Post by infraredshift »

axpvms wrote: post #163
flyingcircus3 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[dead]

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

#176

Post by rschneid »

Aurornis wrote: post #55
qrush wrote: 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.

I buy and sell through eBay about once a month and I agree. eBay isn't perfect but over several hundred transactions and a few disputes that were settled fairly I've had a good experience. I know it's possible to have a bad experience and I'm not discounting those stories, but it's not the standard eBay experience. GameStop was trying to do a Private Equity style takeover. Everyone hates it when PE companies do that,…

You're grossly straw-manning a complex situation by reducing this deal to a 'Private Equity style takeover' that 'everyone hates'...

If anyone is interested in learning more here's a great primary source interview with an ebay seller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ij2nQymtA

and a retrospective here for those without as time/interest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyS9Q-LnhPE

I think it's good to let folks reach their own conclusions!

Your post has strong feelings and is light on facts...

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

#177

Post by xp84 »

projektfu wrote: post #171
xp84 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re right about Kmart/Sears, though the interesting thing was that Lampert was correct that Sears had a great deal of real estate which had tremendous value. If someone skilled at retail had bought it, they could have used the money from selling some of that, to fix the business. Of course, Lampert was only skilled at finance and RE and very obviously just planned to gently wind down the business while sel…

And really you could say that Discover killed it, because they lost focus on the core (or legacy?) business. Still, department stores in the US are nothing like they were in their heyday.

Sears and Kmart both did so much diversification in the ~1980s! Discover, Allstate insurance, Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker for Sears (and Kmart had bought Borders, Builders Square, PACE, OfficeMax). If you trace the total return to a holder of Sears stock c. 1980, including the value they would have received in terms of stock in the spinoffs, the shareholders themselves may have actually ended up doing quite well in our timeline, even compared to one where Sears had reinvested all their profits into Sears, Roebuck & Co and maintained a more dominant retailing business as a result. It seems like no one really cared if the core business succeeded or failed, though.

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

#178

Post by valleyer »

tombert wrote: post #165
valleyer wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Margin interest is tax-deductible, but only when you're using the loan to buy more securities. So, in context, a CEO who "works for no salary" and just takes out loans secured by their stock holdings to fund their lifestyle does not get to write off that interest.

Not to say the "no salary" thing isn't silly anyway, of course.

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

#179

Post by xp84 »

dagenix wrote: post #121
xp84 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^This. The crazy part is that in today’s PE-style system of things, the incentives… - GameStop shareholders - GameStop the company - e.g. employees - eBay shareholders - eBay the company - for example its employees …aren’t necessarily aligned. If GAME buys EBAY - it’s an exit for the EBAY shareholders, which is easy for them to evaluate as it’s presumably a $ premium over the share price today. If GAME then runs the…

My understanding is that existing Ebay shareholders would get half cash and half stock. In order to actually profit, those shareholders would need to believe that the combined company's stock could be sold off without taking a significant loss.

Yeah. On the individual level you can plan to sell immediately, but it sure wouldn't be pretty if a lot of the shareholders decided to do the same!

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

#180

Post by saghm »

taffydavid wrote: post #129

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

Based on their CEO's angry refusal to explain further in TV interviews, it doesn't seem like they can, which is why eBay said that it wasn't a credible offer. It sounds like this is just a way to get a few more headlines for GameStop to keep their meme stock value a bit longer, along with a claim that they're being treated unfairly (which isn't substantive, but then again neither is the basis for their meme stock value, so that might be irrelevant to the ones this PR is attempting to target).
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