Meme stock GameStop makes $56 billion bid for eBay in bid to rival Amazon

A sign is posted in front of the eBay headquarters in San Jose, California. Justin Sullivan | U.S. video game retailer GameStop announced Sunday it has made an unsolicited, non-binding offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share in a cash-and-stock deal, valuing the e-commerce platform at roughly $55.5 billion . The offer, split evenly between cash and GameStop common stock, represents a 20% premium to eBay's Friday close of $104.07, and a 46% premium to its closing price on Feb . 4 — when the gaming retail giant started building a stake in the company, GameStop said in its statement. Shares of eBay surged as much as 13.4% in after-hours trading to around $118. GameStop, which became a so-called "meme stock" during a 2021 retail frenzy that drove sharp gains in its shares, jumped around 4% to $27.6 per share. The announcement came as GameStop Chief Executive Ryan Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that he saw a path to make the e-commerce company a much bigger competitor to Amazon.com . Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon eBay "EBay should be worth — and will be worth — a lot more money," Cohen said. "I'm thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars." GameStop has built a roughly 5% stake in eBay and secured a commitment letter from TD Bank for up to $20 billion in debt financing to make the deal possible, according to its statement . The remainder of the deal would be funded from its approximately $9.4 billion cash pile. …