Shares of eBay surged 6% in Monday trading after GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen made an unsolicited $56 billion bid to buy the company – and claimed to have a plan to turn the company into “something worth hundreds of billions of dollars.”
The company’s valuation is currently hovering around $48.8 billion following the Monday stock surge. Meanwhile, GameStop’s shares were down more than 8%, dropping its market cap below $11 billion – meaning it is far smaller than its acquisition target.
In a non-binding proposal, GameStop offered $125 per share in cash and stock – a roughly 20% premium over eBay’s closing price on Friday. GameStop has already quietly built a 5% ownership stake in eBay.
EBay’s stock was trading at around $110 per share on Monday – a sign that investors are skeptical that a deal will get done.
Cohen – who became a favorite of retail investors as GameStop rose to “meme stock” prominence – told the Wall Street Journal that “eBay should be worth—and will be worth—a lot more money.”
“I’m thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” Cohen said, adding that he felt the company could become a “legit competitor to Amazon” in the ecommerce sector.
GameStop said TD Securities has committed up to $20 billion in debt financing toward a potential transaction. Cohen has also pledged to “deliver $2 billion of annualized cost reductions within twelve months of closing” if the deal goes through.
EBay’s board of directors confirmed Monday that they had received the offer and would consider it.
“The Board will review this proposal with a focus on the value to be delivered to eBay shareholders, including the value of the GameStop stock consideration and the ability of GameStop to deliver a binding, actionable proposal.,” the company said in a statement.
“Until the Board has further carefully and thoroughly considered the proposal, the company does not intend to comment further at this time,” the company added.
Some Wall Street analysts already appear to be skeptical of Cohen’s plan, especially since eBay has recently been on the upswing
“EBAY itself is in the midst of a turnaround — one that is going well,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note to clients. “But to the extent there are any challenges or volatility from categories like Collectibles, this could put further strain on the math. We see real challenges to structuring this deal.”
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts similarly said they see “low probability of a deal” actually occurring.
“Any credible offer would require substantial dilution and introduce meaningful execution risk,” analysts Poonam Goyal and Sydney Goodman said.
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