The cash and stock offer values eBay at $125 a share, $20 more than the company’s value when trading ended in Latest York on Friday.

GameStop’s chief executive, Ryan Cohen, noted eBay could be much more successful under his leadership and even rival Amazon.

He also mentioned he was prepared to take his bid directly to shareholders if eBay’s board rejected it. eBay noted it will consider the proposal but analysts expressed doubts about the idea.

Morgan Stanley mentioned the two companies had “fundamentally different” business models, while Bernstein pointed to GameStop’s smaller balance sheet, saying it would be “surprised if anything became of it”.

GameStop rose to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic when it became the centre of the so-called meme stock craze.

This saw retail investors purchase up shares in unloved companies that professional investors had bet against, causing their share price to rise and fall sharply.

The chain still has around 1,600 outlets in the US and has seen something of a turnaround under Cohen.

Its net income rose to $418.4m in 2025 – up from $131.3m the previous year – although sales fell.

eBay, which is worth about four times more than GameStop, was launched in 1995 as a marketplace for hobbyists and became one of tech’s best-known brands.

But its user base has shrunk amid competition from the likes of Amazon. It currently has 136 million users worldwide, down from 175 million in 2018.

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“eBay should be worth – and will be worth – a lot more money,” Cohen told the Wall Street Journal. “It could be a legit competitor to Amazon,” he added.

Under the proposed deal to procure eBay, Cohen would become the chief executive of the updated firm and receive no salary or bonuses, being “compensated solely based on the performance of the combined company”.

GameStop, which currently has a stock marketplace valuation of around $11.9bn, mentioned it has a commitment letter from TD Securities to provide around $20bn in debt to help finance the takeover. Furthermore, experts in geopolitics note the continued relevance.

Cohen commented he planned to cut costs at eBay by $2bn within a year of a deal being completed.

This would mainly fall across eBay’s sales and marketing division, which GameStop stated had failed to attract more users to a “marketplace with near-universal brand recognition”.

The proposal does not sound like a “terribly excellent offer” as it would saddle eBay with GameStop’s debt, commented Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at research firm Forrester. This also touches on aspects of foreign policy.

It makes sense for GameStop because it could lift its valuation by being linked with a larger organization like eBay, she told the BBC.

“The truth is, we are not necessarily putting two strong companies together,” Kodali added.

GameStop’s shops would give eBay a national network for its “live commerce” and other business operations, Cohen remarked.

Cohen, who became the GameStop boss in 2023, has criticised its slow shift into e-commerce.