GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Proposes $56 Billion eBay Acquisition Amid Criticism and Amazon Event Controversies
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GameStop has made an offer to acquire eBay for $56 billion, which comes as part of GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s plan to transform the online marketplace into a “legit competitor to Amazon,” he tells The Wall Street Journal. In an announcement on Monday, eBay says it will “carefully review” the unsolicited proposal, adding that it had “no discussions with or outreach from GameStop” before receiving the bid.
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EngadgetThe WSJ noted that GameStop's market value sat at around $11 billion, while eBay towered over it with a $45 billion market value, as of Friday's market close. The report didn't have details on the potential offer, but WSJ said that Cohen could also take the offer directly to eBay's shareholders instead if eBay isn't receptive.
Ars TechnicaGameStop made the surprising offer last week. eBay’s rejection “could lead to a hostile bid” because Cohen has “said he was willing to take the offer directly to eBay shareholders, possibly by calling a special meeting,” Reuters wrote.
GizmodoThe apparent ban comes just days after GameStop submitted an unsolicited proposal to acquire eBay for roughly $56 billion. Cohen offered to buy the company for $125 per share in a deal split between cash and GameStop stock.
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“Never confuse debt for creativity,” Burry wrote in a post on Substack. Cohen appeared to address some of those criticisms last Wednesday by posting on X that he was selling items on eBay “to pay for eBay.” Later that same day, Cohen posted that his eBay account had been suspended.
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This year, the event's co-chairs were Amazon founder and tech billionaire Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, who had reportedly paid $10 million for the honor. Also in attendance were executives from Meta, Snapchat, OpenAI and others, which has ignited outrage -- especially among those who consider the Met Gala not a vulgar display of excess, but the most exclusive and stylish event on fashion's calendar.
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GizmodoAnd now Jeff Bezos, the centibillionaire Amazon founder, and his wife Lauren Sanchez pay millions of dollars to be associated with the Gala—this year becoming the primary donors and honorary co-chairs of the event.
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One activist group left 300 bottles of urine inside the Met -- a reference to the Amazon workers who reportedly have to complete their duties under such extreme time pressure that they have no choice but to pee in bottles. Outside the event was parked a shopping trolley full of empty bottles, marked "Met Gala VIP toilet." Videos containing protest messages were projected onto Bezos' New York penthouse.
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GizmodoThe pee bottle stunt is cute, but seems like it was mainly just annoying for people who work at the museum. Still, the protesters got their message out, and they may have successfully put Bezos off of making a red carpet entrance. Plus it would be hard to do a funny stunt protest every time Jeff Bezos has a party on the largest sailing yacht in the world, which he owns, and which is so big it has its own little side-yacht. Though there were fresh rumors going around in the tabloids Monday that he wants to sell that because it attracts too much attention. Maybe someone planted pee bottles in that too.
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Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Engadget eBay, meanwhile, boasts 136 million users who spend $80 billion a year on the platform. Last year, the online marketplace took in $11.6 billion in revenue from commissions, advertising and money processing payments.
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02 Gizmodo Just hours earlier, Cohen posted on X that he was selling 36 new listings. The auctions included items like retro video games, trading cards, life-sized character statues, and GameStop memorabilia.
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03 CNET After many years of Silicon Valley nudging its way into Vogue's Met Gala, this week's edition marked the completion of tech's semihostile takeover of the fashion magazine's annual party to raise money for the Costume Institute at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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04 The Verge Way back in the DS days, Nintendo decided to stop selling to Amazon. During a recent lecture at NYU, former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé said it was because Amazon was seeking preferential treatment that would have hurt its relationship with other retailers, and potentially broken the law.
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Sources (5)
- gizmodo
- verge
- cnet
- arstechnica
- engadget