A day after GameStop made a surprise $55.5 billion offer to buy eBay, its CEO Ryan Cohen gave an exceptionally awkward interview, where he was repeatedly pressed on how the company would fund the deal.
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Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Cohen to explain how GameStop could afford $55.5 billion for eBay, given its roughly $11.9 billion market cap and about $9.4 billion in cash and liquid investments.
“It’s on our website. It’s half cash, half stock,” Cohen replied. He would repeat those phrases over the course of the interview.
Sorkin said he had read the details online, but asked Cohen if he could help the audience understand the figures. “Yeah,” Cohen replied. “Which part exactly?”
Sorkin walked through the math again, estimating a gap of roughly $16 to $20 billion.
In a letter released online Sunday, Cohen said GameStop is proposing to acquire all of eBay’s common stock at $125 per share, with 50% in cash and 50% in GameStop common stock.
The company said it had received a “highly confident” letter from TD Securities for up to $20 billion in financing, but Sorkin noted that even with those figures, the numbers appeared to fall short. He also noted that TD’s letter was not “locked” financing.
Sorkin asked Cohen to walk viewers through how the deal would work.
“Yeah, we’ll see what happens,” Cohen replied, drawing laughter in the studio.
“I hear you. I understand that,” Sorkin replied. “I’m just trying to understand where the rest of the money would come from.”
“It’s half cash, half stock,” Cohen said, before Sorkin pushed back.
“I’m just saying that that math doesn’t get you to the price that you’re offering,” Sorkin said.
After a pause, co-anchor Becky Quick stepped in: “That’s a pretty straightforward question. I don’t get it. Where’s the rest of the money coming from? Andrew laid it out for you clearly.”
Cohen said he didn’t understand the question and again pointed viewers to the company’s website. “But you’re on our air,” Quick said.
Nasdaq-based CNBC reporter Melissa Lee then shifted the conversation to strategy, asking how a combined GameStop and eBay could rival Amazon, given the latter’s logistics advantage.
In 2021, Cohen, an activist investor, joined the board of GameStop, the legacy retailer that had become synonymous with meme stocks. The company underwent a broader leadership shakeup that year, with CEO George Sherman announcing his departure and former Amazon executive Matt Furlong taking over as CEO.
After Furlong was ousted in 2023, Cohen—who had already become chairman—was later appointed CEO that same year.
EBay, meanwhile, is among the companies planning to lay off staff this year, at around 800 jobs globally, or 6% of its workforce. The company told Business Insider that it’s taking steps to better align with its strategic priorities.
When pressed on his track record running a mature consumer business, Cohen became defensive: “Didn’t you call for GameStop’s demise multiple times? Like, it should have been bankrupt by now.”
He added, “Is it better than you guys anticipated? Because you said it was going to be doing really, really poorly, but it’s actually doing OK.”
Further attempts to get Cohen to explain the financing were unsuccessful. “I have looked at the materials that you’ve posted online,” Sorkin said, “but we also have an audience that I’m hoping is going to want to understand this and hear from you so that you can walk through this.”
The interview ended after about 16 minutes without a clear explanation of how GameStop would fund the proposed acquisition.
“Ryan Cohen, we want to thank you for joining us, especially as this news is just dropping over the past 24 hours,” Sorkin said at the interview’s close. “We do hope to continue this conversation as this continues to play out.”
GameStop did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
