GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Talks Plan to Buy eBay

Summary

Bloomberg Talks

Episode: GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Talks Plan to Buy eBay
Date: July 16, 2026
Host: Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech)
Guest: Ryan Cohen (GameStop CEO)

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Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth interview with GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen, discussing GameStop’s high-profile, $56 billion unsolicited bid to acquire eBay. Cohen lays out his strategic vision for the potential combined entity, addresses shareholder concerns over dilution and financing, and confronts media skepticism. The conversation is lively and candid, with Cohen frequently challenging prevailing narratives and defending his track record as a value-creating shareholder-CEO.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rationale Behind the Bid and Strategic Vision

• Cohen criticizes media for failing to convey the logic of the bid ([01:33]):

  • Emphasizes his personal alignment with shareholders: “I'm putting $500 million of my own money into this transaction.”
  • Outlines high-margin growth opportunities, especially in "live commerce" and in-game digital marketplaces.
  • Plans to utilize GameStop’s physical stores as strategic nodes for both commerce and logistics.
  • Sees significant “cost takeout opportunity”—$2 billion in the first year post-merger.

• Quote:

  "There has been a complete failure by the media to explain why this transaction makes sense."
  — Ryan Cohen ([01:33])

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2. Financing and Shareholder Value

• On securing financing and concerns about leverage ([03:25]):

  • GameStop has a highly confident letter from bankers (TD) and strong market interest.
  • Cohen dismisses media narratives about excessive leverage, suggesting if GameStop couldn't secure debt, eBay wouldn't be able to either.
  • Reiterates that the pro forma company would retain investment-grade credit quality.

• Addressing Share Dilution Concerns ([05:25]):

  • Cohen argues that the dilution is “different”—if the business grows as forecast, it is ultimately accretive to shareholders.
  • Emphasizes his own capital at risk and contrasts with other management teams' "risk-free compensation."
  • “I wouldn't go and buy a business if I didn't think I can take it from $56 billion and turn it into multiples larger so it's accretive to shareholders.”

• Quote:

  “Most of the time when companies are issuing shares, it's dilutive and earnings per share goes down. In this case it's a different story.”
  — Ryan Cohen ([05:25])

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3. Status of the Proposal and Deal Process

• To date, eBay has not engaged ([07:33]):

  • Cohen accuses the eBay board and management of being "entrenched" and “hiding behind their advisors.”

• Is he willing to improve the offer?

  • “I'm not going to negotiate against myself.” ([09:40])
  • Pressed again at the end: “I'm not going to call my shots, but we're coming for eBay one way or another.” ([22:42])

• Quote:

  "It's going to be the owners of the business that are going to decide who is more competent, who's more aligned with shareholders."
  — Ryan Cohen ([10:01])

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4. Synergy Between GameStop and eBay

• Vision for Combined Entity ([08:34], [15:08]):

  • "eBay is a platform that I can build into something much more profitable and much larger."
  • GameStop’s 1,600+ storefronts as local authentication/logistics hubs for collectibles/Live Commerce.
  • Plans to expand into digital marketplaces for in-game items.
  • Sees domestic/US opportunities in live commerce; eBay "not doing very well," but the combined entity could replicate Asian success.

• Quote:

  "Live commerce is a trillion dollar addressable market... The ability to go and use our nodes for studios and as fulfillment and logistics for content creators is huge."
  — Ryan Cohen ([15:08])

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5. Industry Trends: Digital Gaming and Collectibles

• Impact of discless consoles and gaming digitization ([17:35]):
  • Confirms shift from software sales to collectibles as core business: “Software today makes up less than 12% of the business and collectibles makes up over half the business. So it’s totally, totally irrelevant.”
• Lessons from NFT Marketplace?
  • Cohen pivots to highlight record earnings, sidesteps direct lesson-sharing ([18:09]).

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6. Media Skepticism and Cohen’s Response

• Cohen calls out perceived negative bias from media ([18:34]):

  • Asserts that media wants GameStop to fail and questions why.
  • Frames himself as a risk-taker aligned with shareholders, inviting judgment between entrenched management and his own record.

• Repeatedly highlights his personal risk/investment and prior track record at Chewy and GameStop.

• Quote:

  "There's nothing more American than GameStop committing its balance sheet... What world do we live in where we're rooting for an entrenched management team that has no skin in the game and someone that's risking their own capital?"
  — Ryan Cohen ([18:34])

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7. Next Steps and Shareholder Communication

• Presentation of detailed business plan ([20:41]):

  • Cohen commits to presenting a concrete plan “directly to shareholders. It’s not going to be through a TV show.”
  • No definitive public timeline, but assures it will be “in due course” ([20:56]).

• On his ultimate goal:

  "It's to make the business a lot more profitable and to maximize shareholder value. So that's the plan. It's not that complicated."
  — Ryan Cohen ([21:11])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Context | |-----------|------------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:33 | Cohen | “There has been a complete failure by the media to explain why this transaction makes sense.” | | 05:25 | Cohen | “Most dilution is dilutive to shareholders... In this case it's a different story.” | | 07:33 | Cohen | No contact from eBay: “They're entrenched and they're hiding behind their, their advisors.” | | 09:41 | Cohen | Refuses to negotiate in public: “I'm not going to negotiate against myself.” | | 10:01 | Cohen | “It's going to be the owners of the business that are going to decide who is more competent.” | | 15:08 | Cohen | “Live commerce is a trillion dollar addressable market... The ability to go and use our nodes for studios and as fulfillment and logistics for content creators is huge.” | | 17:35 | Cohen | “Software today makes up less than 12% of the business and collectibles makes up over half the business. So it's totally, totally irrelevant.” | | 18:34 | Cohen | “There's nothing more American than GameStop committing its balance sheet… someone that's risking their own capital.” | | 22:42 | Cohen | “I'm not going to call my shots, but we're coming for ebay one way or another.” |

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Segment Timestamps

• Bid Rationale & Vision: [01:33] - [02:46]
• Financing & Shareholder Value: [02:46] - [07:12]
• Deal Process & Negotiations: [07:12] - [10:40]
• Combined Business Synergies: [15:08] - [16:58]
• Gaming Industry Trends: [16:58] - [17:53]
• Media Critique & Shareholder Focus: [18:34] - [20:41]
• Plan for Disclosing Combined Business Plan: [20:41] - [21:11]
• Episode Wrap-up: [22:29] - [22:49]

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Summary

Ryan Cohen uses the Bloomberg platform to forcefully articulate his vision for an enlarged, tech-forward GameStop-eBay hybrid. He repeatedly centers shareholder alignment—putting his own capital on the line—as proof of seriousness and integrity. Defiant toward critics and eBay’s current management, Cohen remains steadfast that the deal benefits both sets of shareholders and unlocks billion-dollar digital and live-commerce opportunities. While tangible details are still pending direct to shareholders, Cohen’s message is clear: he's “coming for eBay one way or another” ([22:42]).

This episode is essential listening for anyone tracking M&A in retail tech, the future of collectibles, or the next phase of GameStop’s ongoing transformation.

Transcript

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[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

One of the biggest potential deals in technology is GameStop's attempt to buy eBay. In May, the video game retailer and its CEO Ryan Cohen launched an unsolicited $56 billion bid for the e commerce platform. EBay rejected the offer, calling it neither credible nor attractive. Since then, Cohen has scrapped a controversial multibillion dollar pay package. And GameStop shareholders have increasing the company's authorized share count, giving it more flexibility to pursue strategic transactions. So where does the deal stand now? Ryan Cohen joins us on Bloomberg television and radio. Ryan, thank you for your time and good morning. Welcome to Bloomberg Tech. On the long list of things that have happened since May, our audience just has a very simple question for you which is what's changed, what's developed in that period of time?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

There has been a complete failure by the media to explain why this transaction makes sense. And so number one, my track record, Chewy and GameStop, it speaks for themselves, my alignment with shareholders. I'm putting $500 million of my own money into this transaction. The high margin growth opportunities for this business within Live Commerce, which company has not been doing well and using GameStop stores as nodes for both the marketplace and Live Commerce is huge because the business today in Live commerce is tiny. Then building out a digital marketplace for in game items, those are just like some of the high growth opportunities within the business. And then there is the cost takeout opportunity. I've committed to taking out $2 billion within the first year and that's just the beginning. So this whole narrative that the business is going to be too leveraged is a fantasy invented by the media and it's just simply not true

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

on the banking side. Let's go there. You lined up some banking support, right. And I think that one of the concerns that Moody's put out there as an example was the credit rating and the credit worthiness of the combined entity. So again, another question from the audience is explain the banking support that you've, you've secured since May, but also that concern that the debt component of it, what the credit negative outlook would be for a combined entity based on the plan that you've just outlined.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

We have a highly confident letter from our bankers. We have a lot of parties that are interested in this transaction. And the most important thing, ultimately if we can't get the debt, then it means that ebay can't get the debt and ebay can get the debt. So this entire narrative is simply not true.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

I didn't explain that question very well, Ryan, if I'm self reflective, honest about it. So I'm just going to go back to it. Your financing letter is from td, right? And it was widely reported to depend on the combined company maintaining investment grade credit rating. And then Moody's came out and said that this deal would be credit negative for the combined company. Have you taken steps to address that?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

Nobody has reached out to us, including the credit agencies. But the pro forma company is going to be investment grade.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

We talked to the beginning of the conversation about shareholders improving, increasing, Sorry, the company's authorized share count. Does that allow you to do something new that you couldn't have otherwise done in the context of the ebay deal?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

Yeah, I mean we. Yes, it does.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

And what would that be

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

by the business? By ebay?

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

I posted on X that you were coming on the show and you know, in the context of what you've done with financial mechanics of late, you know the question that existing Gamestop shareholders sent to me over and over again is, you know, you're asking them to accept pretty significant dilution and they're basically asking like what's the payoff for them in accepting that dilution.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

There's different forms of dilution. Most dilution is dilutive to shareholders when you're buying a business and I've committed to pulling $2 billion of costs out. So if you do the math and buying a business for 56 billion and the business is forecasted to make over three and a half billion, that's, that's the consensus for 2026 plus what, what I would be pulling out in cost. So you're at over five and a half billion of EBITDA and then the ability to take this platform and build a much, much larger business, the upside is huge. So I wouldn't go and buy a business if I didn't think I can take it from 56 billion and turn it into multiples larger so it's accretive to shareholders. But most of the time when companies are issuing shares, it's dilutive and earnings per share goes down. In this case it's a different story. But most of the time you have management teams. A good example is this company that collect tons of risk free compensation and they're not aligned with shareholders. In this case that's not the case.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

You have the letter from TD. You said earlier you were going to put $500 million of your own money into this transaction. Outside of that, is there any other financing support, any other parties that since mid May you've pulled into it?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

We've had a lot of parties come to us and there's been a lot of interest from the capital markets.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

We're live on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio with ryan Cohen, the CEO of GameStop. We're talking about Ryan and GameStop's bid to buy ebay. Really simple question. Has anyone from ebay, the management team or the board reached back out to you or responded to you in this interim period? No.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

I hope they do, but they're entrenched and they're hiding behind their, their advisors.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

If I go to teddy.com on any browser I'm diverted back to gamestop.com why

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

I'm focused on GameStop.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

The root of the question is let's say that you proceed with this. There's a very wide range of opinion speculation. Basically why does Ryan Cohen want to buy ebay? At one extreme is the idea that you just want to be the CEO of eBay rather than than GameStop. At the other end is the idea that you have a bigger plan, a master plan. You kind of talked about it a little bit earlier but what's the reality here? What is the bigger picture for a combined entity or referencing teddy.com there's some history there, but a sort of conglomerate, a holding company.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

Ebay is a platform that I can build into something much more profitable and much larger. The ability to take GameStop stores and our experience in gaming and refurbish tech and collectibles combined with ebay and be a leader in live commerce, build out an in game digital marketplace, use the stores for same day authentication and ultimately pull down, pull out significant cost. And none of these things come at the expense of growth. It's actually the opposite. The more efficient you get, the easier it is to grow. It makes too much sense. So that's why I want a business, that's why I want to buy it. It's not that complicated. There is such overlap between the businesses and my experience is in E commerce.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Right. Are you improved prepared to improve the offer? Ryan,

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

I'm not going to negotiate against

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

myself, but that might be what it takes.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

We'll see what happens that.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

You've talked about this a little bit recently. A lot of people point out to me you've done a number of interviews in quick succession. Right. What happens if ebay just keeps saying no?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

Ultimately, it's going to be the owners of the business that are going to decide who is more competent, who is more. Who's more aligned with shareholders and who is more capable of building a much, much larger business. So the management team can only fight for so long. And I would love for this to be a collaborative process and a consensual process. That's my preference. That's number one. But if that doesn't happen, then it's going to be shareholders decision because they're the owners of the business.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Right. I do want to talk a lot more about the GameStop business, a lot more about ebay. And we're going to take a break and come back and do that, talk about what's really happening. I have a final question from the audience that I promised I would put to you, and it's from GameStop shareholders. A lot of GameStop shareholders have asked about the warrants that expire in October. You know, another recent or relatively recent financial transaction from the company. What should they expect happens with those warrants between now and October of this year?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

I don't have a crystal ball. I can't answer that question.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Okay. Their expectation is that when they expire, I think the dates October 26th is, that's the outcome.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

And people that have invested alongside me when it comes to Chewy or GameStop and me committing $500 million into eBay, they've done. They've done very, very well. So I don't have a crystal ball. I can't predict the future, nor can anyone that I've ever met. But GameStop is a business that was on the brink of bankruptcy and everybody was betting against it for good reason. And now the company is making more money than it's ever made in its history.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Ryan Cohen, CEO of GameStop, you're sticking around. We're going to take a break and then we're going to talk about that business, GameStop, and what it's doing. We'll be right back. This is Bloomberg Tech.

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[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

okay, we're live on Bloomberg Tech with GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen. Let's put the ebay deal, potential deal aside for a moment. Whatever happens with eBay, GameStop still one of the biggest names in gaming. I get a lot of questions about that. And Ryan, if you're up for it, let's start with Grand Theft Auto 6. You know it's expected to be one of the biggest entertainment launches ever. You go to gamestop.com pre orders are available. What are you seeing? What are customers telling you?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

And I want to go back and talk about ebay. I want to know if you wanted to build, if you wanted to build the trillion dollar business and you had the existing management team running the company, makes 30 million bucks a year, hasn't bought a single share in the open market. And then you have someone that's committed 500 mil me very. So we don't have to talk in hypotheticals who's more competent and capable of building a larger business. I want you to look your viewers in the eyes and tell them, are you going to bet on an entrenched management team running the business or me? Someone that went head to head against Amazon selling 30 pound bags of dog food, turned around a very tough situation at GameStop and now the company's making lots of money. I really want to know your opinion, Ryan.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

I'm not going to, I'm not here to answer the question. The audience doesn't care what I think about this deal. They're here for you. But the link to Grand Theft Auto 6, for what it's worth, GameStop has 2200 stores across the jurisdictions it operates in. Right. It sells hardware, video games, consoles that are going discless. At some point you need to hire people for those stores. People are looking at what they know about the proposed structure of this deal that's on the table and trying to understand, in part we talked about earlier, right, taking the costs out of the combined business to understand what the plan is here, what the master plan is for the combined entity. So, so let's go with that. Like what is the synergistic play here between ebay, the e commerce business and GameStop, which right now is a brick and mortar business selling video games, consoles, collectibles.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

We are going to unlock live commerce. We're going to use the stores for same day authentication. I'll give you an example. Let's just talk about trading cards right now, right? The biggest issue on ebay is fraud. So they've done really well on authenticity guarantee because you know when you buy an item now and it's got the AG certification, it's legit. It's going through a centralized model right now. So the sellers shipping it costs a lot of money. There's a few fulfillment centers, take some time and then it goes to the buyer can ultimately go. Once these businesses are together, we've got 1600 nodes, they're within a 15 minute drive of 80% of the population. And you can authenticate the item same day for cheaper. So that's just one item. Live commerce, the business is getting smoked. Live commerce is a trillion dollar addressable market. It's really, really big in Asia. There are some competitors in the US that are doing very, very well. Ebay is not doing very well. So the ability to go and use our nodes for as studios and as fulfillment and logistics for content creators is huge. And then we have a bit of experience in gaming when it comes to the buy, trade and sell by the buy, sell and trade model. So the ability for us to use ebay's Rails to build out an in game digital marketplace is huge. So those are just some of the opportunities to take this business and build it into something that the existing management team on a standalone basis can never do.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

So the situation is collectibles are clearly a central part of the plan, right? If this deal goes through the combined entity on gaming, it sounds like you are preparing for a world where gaming is discless. There will be a trade in second hand trading. But this is the umbrella point, right? Like if the hardware makers Sony Xbox are reportedly moving to disk list on the console side, future game launches are digital only. Where does that fit in for your business plan and the combined entity?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. Software, it mattered in the past. Software today makes up less than 12% of the business and collectibles makes up over half the business. So it's totally, totally irrelevant.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Is there anything that you Learned from the NFT Marketplace experiment at GameStop that you, you think you can put into practice? If the deal goes through in this combined entity, what was the takeaway for you from that?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

What does that mean?

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

GameStop has looked at digital business lines outside of the physical world. What did you learn from GameStop looking at those markets?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

You know how much money GameStop is making today, please? 143 million in Q1 highest operating earnings in the company's history.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

There was surprise at the strength of earnings recently.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

But again, you know, the audience, everybody in the. Everybody in the media wants GameStop to fail. Explain that to me and why everybody in the media, in the Mainstream Media wants GameStop to fail. You've got. There's nothing more American than GameStop committing its balance sheets. And this company, which is a great American company, ebay, being aligned with shareholders, that's how this country was built, is risking your own capital. And if the business succeeds, you make money. And if the business fails, you lose a lot of money. And what I want to understand is why everybody wants GameStop to fail, both its core business and in this transaction. What world do we live in where we're betting against, where we're rooting for the. The. An entrenched management team that has no skin in the game and, and someone that's risking their own capital. And there's nothing more American than that. You want us to fail. I want to understand that.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Ryan. I'm a technology journalist. I host the tech show on Bloomberg. When this deal broke in May, I and my team invited you onto the show, and it took a number of months. You're now here on the show, and in advance of you coming on the show, I posted on social media that you were coming on the show. I always give our audience the opportunity to ask their questions. That's what we're doing here, giving you an opportunity to present. I think the one outstanding thing is people asking, when will they see a sort of codified plan from you, a business plan presented for this combined entity. On paper, you've explained a bit of it in the course of this conversation, but that's, that's why the audience is here to listen to you, to explain the future of a business that is a combination of GameStop and eBay.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

Well, I'm going to bring that plan directly to shareholders. It's. It's not going to be through a TV show. You can count on it. It's going to be directly to shareholders.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

And do you have a timeline for that? Ryan?

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

We've had an influx of parties that have come to ask and they're interested, and in due course, the plan is going to be made public. But

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

in the short time I'm going

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

to ask you, building a much larger business, I mean, you know, what is the goal of business? What is my goal? I own a lot of stock and I don't have any perverse incentive. So it's to make the business a lot more profitable and to maximize shareholder value. So that's the plan. It's not that complicated. And I spoken about huge growth areas within cutting costs. That's just short term. But live commerce and building out an in game digital marketplace. So I've shared that with you, but everyone in the past have said what's the business plan? What's the business plan? But they only do that with GameStop for whatever reason. Well, you know what the business plan is to make money. GameStop just reported its highest earnings in the company's history with a fraction of the stores and everybody in the media said GameStop was going to fail. So the plan is to make more money. The plan is to maximize shareholder value. Am I going to go and share my proprietary plan and every single detail and give it out to my competitors? That'd be a pretty stupid thing to do.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Brian, we have literally 30 seconds left in the show again. Are you prepared to raise your offer for ebay? You set out your vision, but the action you're willing to take to do it.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

I'm not going to call my shots, but we're coming for ebay one way or another.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Ryan Cohen, CEO of GameStop an extended conversation on Bloomberg Tech. Thank you for your time. Get the news you need in just 15 minutes. Start your day with Bloomberg Daybreak, the podcast with a global view on the stories that matter. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moss.

[Ryan Cohen (CEO of GameStop)]

Gal.

[Nathan Hager (Bloomberg Tech Host)]

Join us each morning for curated stories on current events, politics, business and foreign relations. Plus one conversation on the day's biggest developments, all in just 15 minutes. Subscribe to Bloomberg Daybreak for a precise, thoughtful take on the stories that matter. Listen to Bloomberg Daybreak each morning on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to.