GameStop may be getting ready for its boldest pivot yet.
The company is preparing an offer to buy eBay, according to The Wall Street Journal, in what would be a massive attempt to move the retailer far beyond its traditional video game business. Reuters and Bloomberg have also carried reports on the WSJ story.
No formal offer has been announced, and the terms of any possible bid are not yet known. The report says GameStop has been quietly building a stake in eBay and could submit an offer as soon as later this month. If eBay is not receptive, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen could reportedly consider taking the proposal directly to eBay shareholders.
Why the reported eBay offer is such a surprise
The scale is the first shock. eBay's market value is around $46 billion, while GameStop is valued at roughly $12 billion. That means GameStop would be trying to buy a company several times its own size.
GameStop does have more financial flexibility than it once did. In its fiscal 2025 results, the company said it ended the year with $9 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. It also reported bitcoin and related receivables valued at $368.4 million at the end of the quarter.
That still does not make a takeover simple. A deal for eBay would likely require some mix of cash, stock, debt or outside financing. It would also need to convince investors that GameStop can turn a legacy retail turnaround story into a much larger e-commerce and marketplace business.
What GameStop could get from eBay
eBay would give GameStop a global online marketplace with obvious overlap in gaming-adjacent categories. Used games, consoles, trading cards, collectibles, toys, comics and memorabilia are already part of eBay's wider ecosystem, and those areas fit more naturally with GameStop than many other large e-commerce businesses would.
eBay is also coming off a stronger-than-expected quarter. The company reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $3.1 billion and gross merchandise volume of $22.2 billion. Its recent update also highlighted collectibles momentum, including growth around trading cards, Goldin and eBay Live.
For GameStop, that makes the idea easier to understand even if the execution would be difficult. Cohen has been trying to reshape GameStop after years of pressure on physical game retail, while eBay would immediately give the company a much bigger digital marketplace footprint.
The market reacted quickly to the report. eBay shares jumped in after-hours trading, while GameStop also moved higher.
For now, this is still a reported plan rather than an announced deal. GameStop and eBay have not confirmed an offer, and there is no guarantee that a bid will actually be made. But if Cohen does move forward, it would mark GameStop's most aggressive attempt yet to turn itself from a meme-stock retailer into something much larger.