GameStop makes $55.5bn takeover offer for eBay

US video games retailer GameStop has offered to buy eBay for $55.5bn (£41bn) in an unsolicited bid that its boss warned could turn hostile if the proposal is rebuffed by eBay’s board. GameStop, which has quietly accumulated a 5% stake in eBay , said it was willing to pay $125 a share, split 50-50 between cash and stock. It is an ambitious move by the games company, which catapulted to fame during the meme-stock craze of 2021 but is worth far less than its takeover target. GameStop had a market valuation of roughly $12bn on Friday before its bid, while eBay – originally launched as a side hobby by its founder Pierre Omidyar in 1995 – is worth about $46bn. But Ryan Cohen, who has run GameStop since 2020, claims eBay could be worth much more under his leadership, saying in a letter to eBay chair Paul Pressler that he would immediately launch a cost-cutting programme that would slash $2bn worth of spending a year. “Ebay should be worth – and will be worth – a lot more money,” Cohen told the Wall Street Journal. “I’m thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” Cohen said, adding: “It could be a legit competitor to Amazon.” Cohen, dubbed the “meme king” by retail traders and online followers, told the WSJ that he was prepared to take the offer directly to eBay shareholders, turning the bid hostile, if eBay’s board was not receptive to his proposal. …