If dubious auction listings, cable news follies or pure financials weren’t cutting it before, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen is leveraging another stake in his bid for eBay: his emotional investment.
In a conversation with Business Insider’s Sarah E. Needleman, Cohen says one of his biggest drives in taking over the e-commerce titan is that he’s lost the spark at his current job. Assuming it was ever there to begin with. “I wasn’t passionate about GameStop,” says Cohen. “I’m passionate about eBay. I believe in eBay’s business.”
Cohen took over as GameStop CEO in 2023 after joining the board in 2021, right around the time of GameStop’s infamous “meme stock” frenzy. While the saga made for a movie, it has not made for a sounder business. Cohen has been unable to turn the tides of major retail pains, especially in a market that has overwhelmingly gone digital as video games. GameStop has been closing stores by the hundreds and sold off international branches entirely.
Cohen tells Needleman he never wanted to be the CEO of GameStop, but he has always wanted to become the CEO of eBay. His bid for eBay has not been fruitful thus far. The biggest reason being that he doesn’t have the cash for it, offering $56 billion while only having $9.4 billion in assets. Instead he’s pitching a half cash, half stock offer, summoning memories of GameStop’s viral Wall Street surge. Though the honeymoon of the meme stock days have long since passed as well, with even its biggest cheerleaders bailing.
He’s also begun personally selling wares on the platform in something of a stunt, from GameStop memorabilia to pillaging the Game Informer vault. Cohen claims the listings are part of a sincere campaign to dredge up the cash, but like most eBay listings, none of them are worth the billions needed to bridge the gap.
Another key complication is that eBay is doing fine, more or less, whereas GameStop is not. While Cohen was previously founder of a similarly e-commerce company Chewy, pitching yourself as superior CEO is unconvincing when your current outfit continues to fall apart. The spark Cohen had for the meme bashed game retailer is gone, dust in the wind, but was it ever truly there?