
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen trolled eBay board members Wednesday by selling goods on their platform to help fund his threatened takeover of the company.
Cohen and GameStop offered to buy eBay for $55 billion at $125 per share before a viral exchange on CNBC Monday with âSquawk Boxâ co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin. Cohen posted on X that he was going to use the eBay platform as a way to fund his planned takeover of the company, but hours later the company suspended his account.
âIâm selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBay,â Cohen posted on X. However, ten hours later Cohen posted that his account had been suspended by eBay.
âWe wanted to let you know that your eBay account has been permanently suspended because of activity we believe was putting the eBay community at risk,â the company informed Cohen in a screenshot that he posted to his X account.
eBay CEO James Iannone didnât immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundationâs request for comment.
Cohen told the TBPN podcast Tuesday that eBay was not pleased with his actions, and that âafter this interview they really arenât going to like me.â Cohen further explained that he wanted to acquire the online retail giant because he saw crossover between GameStopâs Business model in the collectables market and thought he could run the Business better than the current board members, who he criticized for not being willing to innovate.
Cohen has drawn heated reactions, both pro and against, from the investment community. Cohen took a shot at old guard Wall Street leaders in an essay he wrote in February, in which he criticized what he saw as complacency with modern board members and their lack of âownershipâ mentality.
âAmerican capitalism is rotting from the head down. We have replaced the âOwner-Operatorââthe risk-taker-with a new, parasitic class of corporate bureaucrat: The Risk-Free Insider. By âInsider,â I am not referring to a specific title. I am referring to the entire administrative state that has captured the modern corporation,â Cohen wrote. âThis includes the Directors who exist solely to collect fees, the Executives who exist solely to collect bonuses, and the Managers who exist solely to hire consultants. These are the hollow men of the boardroom. They are masters of PowerPoint. They wear the right suits. They say the right buzzwords about âgovernanceâ and âESG.â But they are mercenaries fighting a war with someone elseâs ammunition.â
During the viral exchange on CNBC, Cohen awkwardly replied to Sorkinâs question about how GameStop could afford to purchase eBay when the companyâs market capitalization amounted to $11.31 billion and eBayâs was $49 billion.
âI think we can start with the idea that the market cap of GameStop, letâs call it $11 billion, you have $9 billion on your balance sheet. Arguably if youâre providing effectively all of your stock and then cashed it, it gets you to $20 . You have this letter from TD , thatâs another $20 . Weâre now at $40 . Weâre still off by, call it $16. And the $20, as far as I understand, while itâs considered a highly confident letter, meaning TD saying theyâre highly confident that theyâd provide the financing, itâs not locked financing,â Sorkin said.
âWell, weâll see what happens,â Cohen replied.
âUm ⌠I hear you. I understand that, Iâm just trying to understand where the rest of the money would come from,â Sorkin said.
âItâs half cash, half stock,â Cohen said.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporterâs byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
