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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

#561

Post by pesus »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #473

CNBC Interview with Ryan Cohen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E

I see praise on Reddit (by GME stockholders, of course) saying that this makes him appear like some tough rebel standing up against the evil mainstream media... but I'm really not seeing it. To me it seems like a very tired (inebriated?) guy in a leather jacket who can't comprehend or answer a very basic question. Is this what passes for being a good CEO these days? I'd expect them to be able to at least come up with a vague response instead of claiming they can't comprehend that one number is bigger than the other.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#562

Post by SigmundA »

sakopov wrote: post #551

GameStop CEO was on CNBC and acted like a total dick the entire time after they asked him how financing would work for this deal [1]. It appears that he's upset that Squawk Box previously stated that GameStop is a bankrupt meme stock. This is probably one of the funniest CNBC interviews I've seen. [1] https://youtu.be/Bmj2PaxX24E

I mean its on the website...

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#563

Post by ball_of_lint »

Ritewut wrote: post #275
zx8080 wrote: post #229

So their crypto investment did not work out? Who would have thought! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-26/gamestop-...

Their bitcoin investment is what kept them profitable at times. Same as Tesla.

They can't include it in EBITDA

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#564

Post by shaftway »

crazygringo wrote: post #370
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…

> GameStop is setup as a legal pawnshop in every state. So a pawnshop buying out eBay makes insane sense. It doesn't though. eBay could easily set itself up as a legal pawnshop in every state if it wanted to. It doesn't because there's no advantage to doing so. There are already third-party sellers in many areas who will take your physical merchandise and sell it on eBay in exchange for a cut. eBay doesn't need to en…

You're right that there's no real advantage to eBay buying a pawnshop conglomerate, but a pawnshop conglomerate buying eBay gets a massive advantage. They're already sitting on a mountain of used inventory, and at some point a lot of it will be thrown away because there are no local buyers for it. Having a commission-free way to offload that inventory would be huge for them.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#565

Post by sanswork »

ball_of_lint wrote: post #559
sanswork wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A fraction of that profit does come from interest income. More than half of it came from interest income. Gamestop has been unable to grow revenue since Cohen took over, failed initiative after failed initiative. The only thing saving them is their meme stock nature and a legion of people willing to throw good money after bad allowing them to dilute shareholders to build a warchest. They have increased profit by clo…

Well hey, what do you think about them buying eBay? eBay seems to think a lot of the value is in verification - grading cards, authenticating watches, shoes, handbags. GameStop has a similar business in collectibles and could provide eBay with a physical footprint that would let a lot of that verification happen easier, in-store.

I honestly don't know anything about ebay these days to comment on them but many many people have tried to make a business of providing a storefront for ebay in the past and they've basically all failed so I don't think that bodes well for the main offering Gamestop has.

Also Gamestops verification business is not done in stores AFAIK. I'm pretty sure they've just partnered with PSA to allow you to drop off cards at stores but they are sent away to be authenticated. The stores don't really add any value for most people in this transaction and add a potential downside in that there are multiple reports of Gamestop store employees stealing cards handed over for grading.

Training retail employees to be proper verifiers seems like a huge risk and a huge cost since you need to train them up on how to handle everything where with centralised grading locations you can have specialists(think antiques roadshow).

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#566

Post by ball_of_lint »

fragmede wrote: post #560
ball_of_lint wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Ryan handled that badly because he didn't believe the question was serious. They're offering 50% cash and 50% stock. At an eBay valuation of 56B: 20B of cash will come from their creditor, TD Bank. 8B will come from GameStop itself. 28B will come in the form of stock from the resulting entity, which will own eBay and presumably have a valuation north of 56B. The resulting entity may end up having 50% or more…

"Normal" for M&A, and if you drink enough finance kool-aid it even makes sense, but then you step back, and go wait, no it doesn't!

Does it make more sense to you phrased as "GameStop offers to purchase controlling 50% of eBay for $28B" ?

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#567

Post by trollbridge »

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 by “paid off a bit of its debts” you mean paid off its debts entirely, most of which were at 10% junk bond yields.

They later raised new special types of debt instruments tied to crypto much like Micro Focus did that are at 0% interest rates.

The company also went from years of consistent net losses to consecutive years of consistent profits.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#568

Post by hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm »

kingleopold wrote: post #333
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…

GME moon and all that in 2021 was financial engineering and mass media coordinated BS btw. they were all reporting it in same week with never seen details, with creating BS narratives. but you all consume and believe the details of it? good work by the engineers, nothing more. Same for FAANG BS, ZIRP BS writing made by millions of bots online. Even before llms

People want to believe a 'cool' story, not that they got duped.

Re: GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay

#569

Post by BizarroLand »

dawnerd wrote: post #555
FireBeyond wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I got fucked over by eBay and will never sell on there again. eBay let someone scam me out of $700. I sold a Mavic 2 Pro drone with 5 batteries. The whole process was a mess. Scammer initially complained that it didn't come with a CrystalSky tablet that was in one picture (that was only added AFTER after he had bid already and asked to see Flight Logs, and was explicitly disclaimed as not being a part of the pa…

Should have filed a police report. eBay will side with you and refund you. Had similar happen a few times and every time just required filling out a form in whatever city the item was sent to and attaching it to the dispute.

Yeah, $700 is worth a lawsuit. eBay knows who the buyer is and would be required to turn over the transcripts of the conversations to the court, and if you're suing the buyer eBay's arbitration system wouldn't protect them.

Then, after you win that, you can drag eBay into arbitration for the suffering. I bet you'd walk away with $5k or so after expenses if you have a decent lawyer.

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