Ryan Cohen Tells Us Why He’s Serious About Buying eBay

Ryan Cohen says he by no means wished to be CEO of GameStop.

As an alternative, he says he desires of helming eBay and thinks he has an actual shot at attaining that aim, regardless of critics’ claims that the e-commerce large is past his attain.

“I will proceed doing no matter I must do with a purpose to purchase the enterprise,” the GameStop CEO instructed Enterprise Insider in a telephone interview on Friday. “I will make myself CEO of each.”

Cohen shocked Wall Road earlier this week when he disclosed that GameStop had made an unsolicited bid of about $56 billion for eBay, which has a market worth greater than thrice its measurement. He raised eyebrows once more on Monday when he appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Field,” throughout which the hosts overtly doubted whether or not the corporate might afford eBay and responded to his remarks with exhalations and chuckles.

“I am undecided whether or not their questions have been honest or not,” mentioned Cohen, including that he laid out a transparent clarification of how he would finance a deal for eBay. “I do not know what’s so sophisticated for them to determine it out.”

A CNBC spokesperson mentioned the “Squawk Field” interview “speaks for itself.”

Cohen, whose “half money, half inventory” mantra describing the financing rapidly became a meme, mentioned GameStop has about $9 billion in money and that TD Financial institution had expressed confidence in inserting roughly $20 billion in debt. Collectively, he mentioned, would cowl the money portion of the bid. Within the wake of his viral CNBC look, Cohen provided a extra detailed clarification of his math, together with on TBPN.

“What we’re proposing is for current shareholders to take half of their funding off the desk, and that might be us offering them with $28 billion, which is sort of a 40% premium from once we began shopping for the inventory,” he instructed TBPN. “After which they’d be getting roughly — I imply it relies on in the end when the transaction closes — however they’d be rolling the remaining into the mixed firm of GameStop and eBay.”

When talking with Enterprise Insider, Cohen urged the inventory part could be “earnings per share accretive” for GameStop shareholders as a result of he mentioned he might considerably improve eBay’s profitability by means of cost-cutting, making the mixed entities extra priceless total.

A well-known playbook

In publicly criticizing eBay’s management and arguing he might do a greater job, Cohen borrowed from the playbook he used when he took over GameStop in 2021. A key distinction, although, is that eBay’s enterprise is way more healthy at this time than GameStop’s was again then.

Cohen, who constructed his fortune because the cofounder of on-line pet-products retailer Chewy, instructed Enterprise Insider that eBay may very well be in a good higher monetary place if it have been managed extra effectively.

“There is a ton of fats that may be reduce,” he mentioned, pointing to what he described as extreme working bills at an organization that carries no stock and whose working revenue has remained roughly flat for a decade regardless of broader e-commerce progress.

EBay’s working revenue was $2.28 billion for 2025 in comparison with $2.2 billion for 2015. The corporate accomplished its PayPal spinoff in 2015 and has offloaded different belongings within the final decade, together with promoting StubHub. The corporate’s EBITDA margin, a profitability ratio measuring operational effectivity, was 24% for 2025.

Cohen additionally took goal at eBay’s executives and administrators. He alleged they’d offered “a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of inventory” with out shopping for shares themselves.

“They are not house owners within the enterprise. They’re simply milking it,” he mentioned. “It is merely a paycheck for them.”

Like different executives of publicly traded firms, Ebay’s management receives shares and inventory choices as a part of their compensation packages. A supply conversant in the matter mentioned firm insiders at the moment personal over $150 million in shares.

Additional, Cohen criticized eBay’s company tradition, alleging that the corporate had turn out to be too snug and undisciplined below its present management.

EBay has publicly mentioned it’s reviewing Cohen’s bid.

A frugal ‘meme king’

Cohen, who has additionally pushed for change at Nordstrom and Mattress Bathtub & Past, mentioned he would not take a wage if he grew to become CEO of eBay. He does not earn one at GameStop, although he has a $35 billion compensation bundle tied to hitting market cap and revenue milestones, which an eBay deal might assist unlock. He mentioned he pays his private assistant out of his personal pocket and that whoever GameStop hires for a lately posted private project manager job could be compensated the identical manner.

“I’ve not pulled a penny out of GameStop,” he mentioned.

Since unveiling his bid for eBay, Cohen has leaned into his message about frugality — and his “meme king” fame for publicity stunts — by itemizing private objects on the market on the platform. These included one for a used pair of socks that drew bids of over $14,000. He mentioned the hassle is a honest a part of a broader push to assist finance the acquisition.

“I’ve a whole lot of spare stuff,” he mentioned.

In a short follow-up name on Friday, Cohen expanded on his aspirations for main the merged firms.

“I didn’t need to be the CEO of GameStop. I need to be the CEO of eBay,” he mentioned. “I am obsessed with eBay. I consider in eBay’s enterprise. I wasn’t obsessed with GameStop. That is the distinction.”

Correction, Could 9, 2026: An earlier model of this text misstated the 12 months Cohen took over GameStop. This story has additionally been up to date with details about eBay management inventory holdings and the corporate’s financials.