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GameStop increases eBay stake as Ryan Cohen targets a bigger buy
GameStop now holds a 9.8% position in eBay after buying millions of shares, and it has begun conversations with eBay's largest institutional holders, according to a regulatory filing cited by Yahoo Finance.
GameStop has been building its position in eBay as it weighs options around a potential transaction, with Ryan Cohen telling Bloomberg he intends to pursue eBay “one way or another,” according to Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance said GameStop owns 43.4 million eBay shares, a 9.8% stake, based on a regulatory filing. The company bought 3.5 million shares for about $381 million between June 8 and June 15, then converted 39 million additional shares from put or call options on July 17.
The push follows GameStop’s earlier disclosure of a 5% stake in May, along with an unsolicited offer to buy eBay for about $125 per share, valuing the deal at roughly $56 billion. eBay’s board rejected that proposal within days, describing it as “neither credible nor attractive” and citing concerns about GameStop’s financing and the logic of the combination, Yahoo Finance reported.
Yahoo Finance also pointed to the question of whether GameStop can complete a deal for a company roughly four times its size. The outlet said GameStop holds roughly $7.38 billion in cash, giving it capacity to build the stake without further dilution, and added that GameStop has opened talks with eBay’s largest institutional shareholders. The story further cited a strategy argument that trading cards and collectibles represent about 42% of GameStop revenue, with GameStop’s roughly 1,600 stores positioned as authentication hubs reaching about 80% of the U.S. population within a 15 minute drive.