Ryan Cohen is playing chess and until you realize this nothing will make sense.
The $EBAY proposal was the spearhead. Half cash, half stock. Some might even say dilution.
To block the acquisition, $GME needs to be priced low - requiring more stock to finance the deal.
Enter… the buyback + Q1 earnings announcement.
This is the curveball.
To prevent the buybacks, price must be high. To prevent the $EBAY acquisition, price must be low.
This pits two sides of the trade against each other.
In the end, Ryan and shareholders are rewarded - regardless of the outcome.
Anyways, whats an exit strategy?
GameStop reports highest quarterly net income in company history of $389.6 million. Highest first quarter operating income in GameStop’s history of $143.3 million. Net sales grew 14% year-over-year, driven by collectibles. Cash, marketable securities, digital assets and related receivables, and collateral pledged for derivative asset of $9.7 billion.
https://t.co/BAu3T6V9w4
Community note for the win. We convicted you for fraudulently manipulating stock prices. You made more than $20 million by cheating investors. You’re not a victim.
If I were Ryan Cohen, I would submit a new offer to eBay for less. Let the board explain to shareholders why they’re already receiving less than they could’ve had via the initial offer while they’re simultaneously selling millions of stock themselves. Idk. I just sells cards. 🤷♂️
Years from now, I’ll look back on this moment with real pride, knowing this $GME shareholder community played an instrumental role in pushing the $EBAY acquisition forward alongside Ryan.
We were the 425 pressure campaign. We didn’t ask what the company could do for us; we asked what we could do for the company. We open sourced DD and we memed like we’ve never memed before.
I love each and every one of you, and I love GameStop! Let’s see this through to the finish line!
You know, it really blows my mind to realize that companies like eBay can have overpaid executives in the tune of multi-millions that don’t do a single thing to earn that kind of money.
I work tremendously hard with every job I’ve ever had. Especially at GameStop to not only make the company I love better, but to earn an honest living I can go home and be proud of the work I’ve done. When I started making promotional videos for my job it wasn’t for extra pay. It was to show the world how good our products are and the incredible customer service GameStop has that not many other companies have.
Our CEO also has an incredible work ethic and doesn’t receive a salary as well. He works to make GameStop greater than any other company in the world and only gets rewarded when the company and shareholder succeed.
Talk is Cheep, it takes money to buy whiskey
Where’s all that money going eBay?
💥 Did you know that if you spent $1 on $EBAY stock right now, you’d have shown more conviction in that public company than anyone currently serving on their board or as an executive officer has since February 2021?
In over 22 years, a total of 14 eBay insiders have purchased less than 150,000 split-adjusted shares on the open market, according to https://t.co/PdA313KbuD
Only two of those people are still considered insiders:
Paul S. Pressler, Chairman of the Board
+ 5,140 shares at $29.12 on 11/30/2015
+ 4,180 shares at $23.94 on 2/1/2016
= 9,320 shares total; $249,746 invested on the open market
Logan Green, Director
+ 1,000 shares at $28.32 on 11/3/2016
+ 902 shares at $69.23 on 2/9/21
= 1,902 shares total; $90,765.46 invested on the open market
On 5/1/2026, GameStop bought 2.23x more shares than the entire current eBay board has ever purchased with their own money, according to SEC filings.
Your leaders should put their money where their mouth is.
I bought 1 share of $EBAY earlier this month.
That means I’ve bought more shares than the people running the company have in the last 5 years combined.
🤯
If $EBAY trades up to $125, the $GME derivative position is already worth somewhere between $927M and $1.47B depending on which part of the options book you’re looking at, with roughly $186M to $236M of pure profit sitting on top of an approximately $10M all-in entry cost, which is less than 0.1% of GameStop’s ~$9B cash on hand. Push eBay to $150 and that same position swells to somewhere between $1.5B and $2.1B, with $750M to $900M of embedded profit. Push eBay to $175…?
And the setup only gets more interesting when you look at the float: institutions alone own roughly 104% of eBay’s outstanding shares, insiders including Pierre Omidyar and Margaret Whitman hold another <4.9% each (non-reporting), retail accounts for a small slice on top of that, short interest sits at roughly 3.5% of float, and GameStop’s exposure adds another 6.55%, stacking the total well past 100% of the available float before you even factor in rehypothecation.
If GameStop even deploys 5% of its total cash on hand right now, this can turn into a generational trade for Ryan Cohen as our Chief Investment Officer at large, whether or not the acquisition goes through. Ryan delivered on exactly what he said: an investment* that has limited downside, and asymmetric upside. From a capital allocation perspective? The way he has set us up here is incredible, and going to protect shareholder capital at all cost while bringing the biggest ROI possible. And if we get eBay? A bonus as we become an instant $60B company, accretively per current share of GameStop.
Thanks Ryan Cohen. I’m voting YES on all.