CEO Trolls Rival By Using Their Platform To Fund His Attempted Takeover Of Company — But They Aren’t Amused

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 “Squawk Box” 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. 

“I’m selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBay,” Cohen posted on X. However, ten hours later Cohen posted that his account had been suspended by eBay.

“We 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,” the company informed Cohen in a screenshot that he posted to his X account.

eBay CEO James Iannone didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

I have been suspended from eBay pic.twitter.com/0vadYCQ6KE

— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) May 7, 2026

Cohen told the TBPN podcast Tuesday that eBay was not pleased with his actions, and that “after this interview they really aren’t going to like me.” Cohen further explained that he wanted to acquire the online retail giant because he saw crossover between GameStop’s 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 “ownership” mentality.

“American capitalism is rotting from the head down. We have replaced the ‘Owner-Operator’—the risk-taker-with a new, parasitic class of corporate bureaucrat: The Risk-Free Insider. By ‘Insider,’ I am not referring to a specific title. I am referring to the entire administrative state that has captured the modern corporation,” Cohen wrote. “This 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 ‘governance’ and ‘ESG.’ But they are mercenaries fighting a war with someone else’s ammunition.”

During the viral exchange on CNBC, Cohen awkwardly replied to Sorkin’s question about how GameStop could afford to purchase eBay when the company’s market capitalization amounted to $11.31 billion and eBay’s was $49 billion.

“I think we can start with the idea that the market cap of GameStop, let’s call it $11 billion, you have $9 billion on your balance sheet. Arguably if you’re providing effectively all of your stock and then cashed it, it gets you to $20 [billion]. You have this letter from TD [Securities], that’s another $20 [billion]. We’re now at $40 [billion]. We’re still off by, call it $16. And the $20, as far as I understand, while it’s considered a highly confident letter, meaning TD saying they’re highly confident that they’d provide the financing, it’s not locked financing,” Sorkin said.

“Well, we’ll see what happens,” Cohen replied.

“Um … I hear you. I understand that, I’m just trying to understand where the rest of the money would come from,” Sorkin said.

“It’s half cash, half stock,” Cohen said.