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Shares of eBay are soaring before the opening bell after Ryan Cohen’s GameStop announced an attempt to take over the company for about $56 billion, seeing it as a vehicle to compete with online retail giant Amazon<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shares of eBay are soaring before the opening bell Monday as Ryan Cohen’s<\/a> GameStop pursues an approximately $56 billion takeover of the company, seeing it as a vehicle to compete with online retail giant Amazon.<\/p>\n The national gaming retailer said that its approximately 1,600 U.S. stores could become drop-off and shipping locations. One proposal includes live sales broadcasts from GameStop locations featuring eBay products. <\/p>\n \u201cEBay has the second largest commerce franchise and there\u2019s a big opportunity to do something much larger,\u201d Cohen said in a CNBC interview Monday. <\/p>\n GameStop’s bid is $125 per share in cash and stock. The equity value of the proposed deal is $55 billion on paper.<\/p>\n EBay confirmed the huge bid on Monday and said that it has had no talks with GameStop or received any outreach from the company before it received the proposal.<\/p>\n The company’s board, along with financial and legal advisors, will review the offer and determine what course of action to take, eBay said. <\/p>\n GameStop said that it started accumulating shares in eBay<\/a> beginning in February and currently has a 5% stake.<\/p>\n The company is looking to lower costs at eBay, saying that the online seller spent $2.4 billion on sales and marketing in fiscal 2025 while only adding 1 million net active buyers. GameStop says it will achieve $2 billion in annualized cost cuts within a year of the proposed transaction’s closing.<\/p>\n Cohen, who owns about 9% of GameStop, would serve as CEO of the combined company. He would only be compensated based on the combined company’s performance.<\/p>\n Cohen became CEO of GameStop in 2023. At the time the position had become a rotating door with the company trying to survive as streaming upended the gaming industry. GameStop became one of the most well-known meme stocks<\/a> to create a frenzy among retail traders on Wall Street. The company\u2019s shares took off in 2021 after a band of smaller-pocketed investors helped boost its stock by 1,000% in two weeks.<\/p>\n GameStop shares have fallen since then, but are still up more than 30% this year. <\/p>\n Shares of eBay jumped more than 7% in premarket trading, while GameStop’s stock declined nearly 3%. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n