GameStop has moved from reported interest to a formal bid for eBay, turning last week's takeover speculation into one of the strangest gaming-adjacent business stories of the year.
The retailer has submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire eBay for $125 per share in cash and stock, valuing the marketplace at about $55.5 billion. eBay confirmed receiving the offer and said its board will review it with financial and legal advisers. Shareholders have been told to take no action while that review happens.
The confirmation follows earlier reports that GameStop was preparing an eBay takeover offer. The new proposal gives the deal an actual price and moves the question to whether eBay's board, shareholders and regulators would accept a bid from a much smaller company.
Why GameStop wants eBay
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen is pitching the deal as a way to build a larger commerce business that can challenge Amazon more directly. CNBC, which interviewed Cohen after the proposal was announced, reported that the offer is split evenly between cash and GameStop common stock.
"We are offering half cash, half stock, and we have the ability to issue stock in order to get the deal done," Cohen told CNBC.
Cohen has argued that eBay could make more money under tighter cost controls. CNBC reported that GameStop has accumulated roughly a 5% stake in eBay and has lined up a $20 billion financing letter from TD Bank, though the size of the proposed deal still leaves major questions about funding.
For gaming readers, the most concrete overlap is in resale and collectibles. GameStop's proposal reportedly imagines its store base helping with authentication, intake, fulfillment and live commerce for eBay. That would put GameStop's physical locations closer to categories where eBay is already strong, including trading cards, retro games, used hardware and collectibles.
eBay is reviewing the offer, not accepting it
eBay's response was careful. The company said it had no discussions with GameStop before receiving the proposal, and its board will judge the bid on shareholder value, the value of GameStop's stock component and GameStop's ability to deliver a binding proposal.
The proposal would be an enormous step for GameStop. CNBC noted that GameStop's market value is far below eBay's, while eBay said in its own statement that it has 135 million buyers across 190 markets and enabled nearly $80 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2025.
That scale is why the story goes beyond another Ryan Cohen swing. GameStop has spent years trying to redefine itself after physical game retail lost ground to digital storefronts and online shopping. Buying eBay would push the company far outside traditional games retail, even if the clearest day-one fit sits in the gaming-adjacent worlds of secondhand hardware, collectibles and retro games.
Nothing is final. The offer is non-binding, eBay has not endorsed it and any deal would face a long path through board review, shareholder approval and regulatory scrutiny. But GameStop has now put a real number on the table, and eBay has publicly confirmed that it has to consider it.