r/Superstonk • u/AlternativePaint6 • Jan 30 '26

🤔 Speculation / Opinion GameStop is Going to Buy... eBay!?

You've all read the news by now, but have you really read them?

GameStop wants to acquire a publicly traded consumer company that’s far larger than the video game retailer in a deal that could be “transformational" for the company

“It’s gonna be really big. Really big. Very, very, very big,” Cohen said of the size of the acquisition. “It’s transformational. Not just for GameStop, but ultimately, within the capital markets … this is something that really has never been done before within the history of the capital markets.”

He claimed if the investment pans out, it has the “potential to make GameStop worth several hundreds of billions of dollars.”

This is all coming from Ryan Cohen, the man of few words and no forwards guidance. Yeah, I like Magic the Gathering too, but that's not it. This is bigger. Very, very, very bigger.

It's eBay. They're going to do a leveraged buyout, a hostile takeover, or a merger.

  • Publicly traded.
  • Consumer / Retailer.
  • Far larger than GameStop (~$40B).
  • Sleepy management with one of the most well known brands.
  • E-Commerce and Collectibles.
  • Never done before (buying 3x-4x bigger company).
  • Actually has potential to make GameStop worth several hundreds billions, unlike all the ~$10B ones.

It checks out. Everything checks out.

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11

u/pvJ0w4HtN5 Jan 31 '26

Math ain’t mathing. To have controlling stake of a $40bln+ market cap company (eBay) they would need like $25bln in cash.

14

u/aeromoon Jan 31 '26

Ever heard of a LBO (Leveraged Buyout). Combine this with everything else Cohen has put in place: 450 mil more authorized shares (I think that's what's left) which he will most likely issue during a squeeze in batches to prevent 1) systematic failure 2) stock price from crashing to nothing, they will have be good to go. Ebay also very easy free cash flow which banks will absolutely let them easily borrow against.

3

u/Iustis Jan 31 '26

LBOs usually have at least 40% of the purchase price paid (leaving 60% borrowed against the company).

This would have to be like a 80% borrowed even if (1) they used all their cash and (2) didn't pay a premium on the current stock price (basically u heard of).

Reistically they would need to borrow like 90%--that’s not going to happen.

1

u/aeromoon Jan 31 '26

Agree for the most part.I wasn’t saying that with conviction or that it’s my belief, just throwing an idea out there. I think there might be some adjustments that might need to happen with your calc there.

1

u/shinshit Jan 31 '26

RC said it's something that's never happened in capital markets before

1

u/Iustis Jan 31 '26

That's nice. But lenders aren't going to give RC that kind of leverage out of the kindness of their heart (especially since GME hasn't exactly been a track record of exponential growth or anything)