eBay Just Told GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen His $56 Billion Offer Was Not Even Worth Considering

Ryan Cohen got rejected by 100 investors before building Chewy into a $3 billion empire.

Now a boardroom of corporate suits just tried to do the same thing to him again.

This time, he already holds a 5% stake in the company they're trying to protect.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Has Been Rejected Before and Won

Ryan Cohen is not a Wall Street guy playing acquisition games for headlines.

He's the entrepreneur who built Chewy from three employees in a garage to 9,000 people and $3.5 billion in revenue – then sold it to PetSmart for $3.35 billion, the largest e-commerce acquisition in history at the time.

Every investor he pitched told him you can't compete with Amazon in e-commerce.

He proved every one of them wrong.

Cohen then walked into GameStop – a company burning $381 million a year and circling the drain – and turned it into a business generating $418 million in net income by fiscal 2025.

He cut $800 million in operating costs, retired the company's debt, and raised $4.2 billion in long-term financing at a 0% coupon.

He takes no salary.

No cash bonuses.

No golden parachute.

eBay's board just dismissed him with a four-sentence letter calling his $55.5 billion offer "neither credible nor attractive."

What GameStop's $56 Billion eBay Acquisition Actually Included

Cohen's offer was $125 per share – a 46% premium to eBay's share price the day he started quietly accumulating his position back in February.

The structure: $9.4 billion in GameStop cash on hand, a $20 billion highly-confident financing letter from TD Securities, and 50% of the deal structured in GameStop stock.

His business case was straightforward: eBay spent $2.4 billion on marketing last year and added exactly one million net active buyers – going from 134 million to 135 million.

One million buyers for $2.4 billion.

Cohen said he'd rip $2 billion in annual costs out of the combined company within twelve months – $1.2 billion from that bloated marketing budget alone.

On cost reductions alone, eBay's earnings per share would jump from $4.26 to $7.79 in year one.

He also proposed converting GameStop's 1,600 US retail locations into a physical network for order verification, inventory intake, and fulfillment – infrastructure eBay's digital-only model has never had.

Why eBay's Board Called the Offer Neither Credible Nor Attractive

eBay chairman Paul Pressler wrote four sentences in response.

He cited financing uncertainty, leverage risks, operational concerns, and leadership structure.

What he didn't address: why eBay's standalone strategy – $2.4 billion in marketing to add one million buyers – deserves confidence over Cohen's turnaround record.

Cohen had already gone public with a damaging data point before the rejection landed: eBay insiders bought zero shares of their own company on the open market over the past five years, while selling more than $120 million worth.

The people running eBay don't believe in eBay enough to buy a single share.

Cohen believes in it enough to offer a 46% premium.

eBay's board also noted that the TD Securities financing letter was the one document GameStop submitted that GameStop itself had not included in its own public disclosures – a pointed shot at Cohen's transparency.

Moody's called the deal credit-negative for eBay last week.

GameStop's stock dropped more than 10% when the bid was announced.

Why a GameStop Hostile Takeover of eBay Is Still on the Table

Cohen told CNBC he was willing to take the offer directly to eBay shareholders – bypassing the board entirely by calling a special meeting.

That's how hostile takeovers work.

The board says no.

The CEO goes over their heads.

Shareholders decide.

Cohen holds a 5% economic stake in eBay through derivatives and direct share ownership.

He has standing, financing, and a track record that Pressler's letter conveniently ignored.

eBay's board is betting that investors will look at Cohen's CNBC appearance – where he deflected financing questions by saying the details were on the company website – and conclude he's not serious.

That's exactly what every venture capitalist told him when he was building Chewy.

One hundred of them said no.

He built the company anyway.

The question now isn't whether Ryan Cohen is credible.

The question is whether eBay's shareholders want to keep trusting a board that spent $2.4 billion to add one million users – or back the guy who turned GameStop from a $381 million annual loss into a profitable, debt-free company with $9 billion in cash.

That answer goes directly to eBay shareholders next.

Sources:

• GameStop Corp., "Proposal to Acquire eBay Inc.," SEC Form 8-K, Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2, May 3, 2026.
• eBay Inc., "eBay Rejects Unsolicited Proposal from GameStop," PR Newswire, May 12, 2026.
• "EBay Rejects GameStop's $56 Billion Takeover as Not Credible," Bloomberg, May 12, 2026.
• "EBay rejects GameStop's audacious $56 billion takeover bid," CNBC, May 12, 2026.
• "GameStop's billionaire CEO is an entrepreneur without a college degree who cofounded Chewy," Fortune, May 5, 2026.
• Ryan Cohen, X post filed as SEC Form 425, May 6, 2026.