GameStop is reportedly interested in buying eBay and is preparing to make an offer.
The Wall Street Journal reported that GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen wants to turn the retailer into a $100 billion plus “juggernaut” that moves beyond video games and merchandise. GameStop had a market value of $11 billion at the close after shares jumped 6.33% on the news. eBay has a market value of $46 billion, and saw its shares jump over 11% on the news.
While on face value it seems impossible for GameStop to buy a company with a market value four times as big as itself, it is sitting on $9 billion in cash. If eBay isn’t receptive, Cohen may take the offer directly to eBay’s shareholders, The Wall Street Journal added.
As The Wall Street Journal noted, Cohen could make up to $35 billion in stock if the company’s market value hits $100 billion, among other compensation package criteria. In January, the 40-year-old billionaire told the publication he wanted a “big” deal that is “ultimately either going to be genius or totally, totally foolish.”
As of January, Cohen had a stake of over 9% in GameStop and was its biggest individual shareholder. Investor Michael Burry, who owns shares in the company, said earlier this year that Cohen “has a crappy business, and he is milking it best he can while taking advantage of the meme stock phenomenon to raise cash and wait for an opportunity to make a big buy of a real growing cash cow business.”
At the beginning of 2025, GameStop had around 2,325 locations in the U.S., but by the end of the year it had closed 590 of them. It then kicked off 2026 by closing even more stores as part of an effort to reduce costs.
For years now some have called GameStop a dying bricks and mortar retailer as it looks to new and often bizarre ways to generate revenue. August 2023 saw the company pull out of crypto, and it shut its short-lived NFT marketplace just a few months later. More recently (and much to the dismay of its employees), GameStop held its first-ever Trade Anything Day, which saw customers bringing in literally anything for trade-in credit at their local stores.
During the 2025 financial year ending January 31, 2026, GameStop saw net sales of $3.630 billion, down from $3.823 billion in 2024. Operating income was $232.1 million, compared to an operating loss of $26.2 million in fiscal year 2024.
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
