Ryan Cohen built Chewy into a top online pet retailer and sold it to PetSmart. He then rebuilt GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME)’s balance sheet after the meme-stock era. Now he wants to buy a company roughly four times GameStop’s size. He stated in a recent interview with Bloomberg:
“We’re coming for eBay one way or another.”
GameStop now owns 43.4 million eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) shares, a 9.8% stake, according to a regulatory filing. The firm bought 3.5 million shares for about $381 million between June 8 and June 15. It then converted 39 million more shares from put/call options on July 17. This follows the 5% stake GameStop disclosed in May alongside an unsolicited offer to buy eBay for about $125 per share, valuing the deal at roughly $56 billion. eBay’s board rejected the offer within days, calling it “neither credible nor attractive” and noting concerns about GameStop’s financing and the logic of the combination.
That raises a simple question. Can a company one-fourth the size of its target actually complete this deal and swallow a giant (eBay)? And if it can’t, does building a near-10% stake still make sense for GameStop shareholders, or is Cohen spending real capital on a bid he can’t close?
BULL CASE
Cohen’s record supports the bull case. He built Chewy into a category leader, which gives him more credibility than a typical activist. GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) also has the cash to back this move: it holds roughly $7.38 billion. That lets Cohen build a large stake without further diluting shareholders. GameStop has positioned itself as one of eBay’s largest shareholders by building close to the 10% ownership threshold. Even without a full deal, the stake gives him leverage. He has opened talks with eBay’s largest institutional shareholders, a move that could force board engagement or a better outcome on its own.
Secondly, the collectibles logic holds up too. Trading cards and collectibles already make up about 42% of GameStop’s revenue. Cohen wants to use GameStop’s roughly 1,600 stores as authentication hubs for cards, reaching about 80% of the U.S. population within a 15-minute drive. On the other hand, eBay lacks that physical network. GameStop’s own numbers back the swing as well: the corporation projects adjusted EBITDA above $600 million for the fiscal year ending January 2027, nearly double the $345.4 million it reported in fiscal 2025.
BEAR CASE
The bear case comes down to financing, the same issue eBay’s board raised. GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME)’s only backing is a non-binding letter from TD Securities for up to $20 billion. That letter depends on the combined company reaching an investment-grade credit rating, a rating that’s hard to get before the deal closes and hard to close without the financing that rating unlocks.
Scale makes this worse since GameStop’s market cap sits around $10 billion, about a quarter of eBay’s $50 billion. Funding that gap mostly with debt and new stock is the exact kind of leverage Wall Street keeps questioning.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s own results weaken the case further. Under CEO Jamie Iannone, eBay has moved into higher-margin categories like trading cards, luxury watches, and sneakers, and its market value has grown by nearly 50% since 2020. Its guidance shows the momentum, and the management expects second-quarter 2026 revenue of $2.97 billion to $3.03 billion and non-GAAP earnings of $1.46 to $1.51 a share, after first-quarter revenue grew 19% year over year to $3.09 billion. Hence, a company performing this well is a harder sell to shareholders than a struggling one.
INSIDER MONKEY’S HEDGE FUND DATA ANALYSIS
Insider Monkey’s hedge fund data adds detail here. Of the 1,022 funds tracked, 61 held eBay at the end of Q1 2026, up from 59 the quarter before. But the total dollar value those funds held fell, from $2.51 billion to $1.82 billion, which suggests new holders bought smaller positions rather than existing ones adding to their bets.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) moved the opposite way. Hedge fund ownership dropped to 29 funds from 31, while the total dollar value held nearly doubled, from $159 million to $293 million, pointing to a smaller group of holders riding the stock up rather than broad institutional buy-in on Cohen’s strategy. Moreover, eBay makes up 4.50% of the average holder’s portfolio, compared with 2.80% for GameStop. Big investors trust eBay a lot more than GameStop. Since Ryan Cohen needs these exact investors to approve his deal, he is going to have a very hard time convincing them to trade their valuable eBay shares for GameStop stock.
CONCLUSION
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) reports earnings again in the coming weeks, and the financing question remains unresolved. A full buyout is unlikely right now because GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) still has not figured out how to pay for it, which makes GameStop stock, not eBay stock, the real gamble. Instead of a signed deal, Ryan Cohen will probably just keep buying up shares and using his new 10% ownership to pressure eBay’s board. If his tactics work and he wins board seats or a better partnership, GameStop’s investment becomes highly valuable. But if he fails and walks away empty-handed, Wall Street will punish GameStop stock for wasting a massive amount of cash on a failed public campaign.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of GME as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GME and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: Ray Dalio Stock Portfolio: 10 Best Stocks to Buy and 15 Best AI Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Next 5 Years.
Disclosure: None. Follow Insider Monkey on Google News.
Hedge Fund Resource Center