Skip NavigationMarketsBusinessInvestingTechPoliticsVideoWatchlistInvesting Club
PRO
LivestreamMenu
- GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen scrapped his pay package plan that stood to net him as much as $35 billion if he hit certain performance targets, citing a desire to focus on his eBay takeover bid.
- However, Cohen has shared few details on how he’ll move forward with his $56 billion offer for eBay since the company rejected the proposal in May.
- Eden Chen, CEO of gaming software company FirstLook, said Cohen hasn’t resolved the question of, “How does a $10 billion company take over a $50 billion company?”
GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen.CNBC
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen reminded Wall Street this week that he’s still serious about buying eBay. But he still didn’t make clear how he can do it.
The video game retailer, which became the world’s most famous meme stock in 2021, said Tuesday that its board granted a request from Cohen to withdraw a proposed bonus plan that could have paid him as much as $35 billion if he hit certain performance metrics.
It was the company’s first major update regarding its pursuit of eBay since May, when Cohen unveiled his audacious bid to buy the e-commerce company for $56 billion. EBay’s board rejected the proposal soon after, calling it “neither credible nor attractive,” a sentiment that was shared by the broader market given GameStop’s market cap of roughly $10 billion.
Cohen, who became GameStop’s CEO in 2023 and steered the company to profitability through aggressive cost cuts, has done little to satisfy the skeptics. GameStop said at the time of the proposal that it had lined up a $20 billion financing letter from TD Bank, but didn’t say how it would address the remaining funding gap.
In a combative interview with CNBC, Cohen said the company was offering half cash and half stock, with “the ability to issue stock in order to get the deal done.” The shares sank 10% on the day of the announcement and have trended lower since.
watch nowVIDEO16:42Watch CNBC’s full interview with GameStop CEO Ryan CohenSquawk Box
Now Cohen is returning to the matter by scrapping a bonus plan that was announced in January. One of the requirements to reach the full $35 billion payout was lifting GameStop’s market cap to $100 billion.
“Mr. Cohen stated that he wants leadership fully focused on GameStop’s operating performance and its proposed eBay acquisition,” the company wrote in Tuesday’s statement. GameStop said it would release a “detailed presentation” about the strategic rationale and operational plan behind its eBay offer this week.
Eden Chen, a former scout for venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and CEO of gaming software company FirstLook, said that by nixing the bonus, Cohen is at least removing the concern that he wants to do the deal as a way to get his bonus.
“His pay package was tied to getting a certain market cap, and if he merged with a much larger company, conceivably that would get him there quickly,” Chen said. GameStop wrote in its release Tuesday that the company hadn’t decided to pursue the eBay deal when its board approved the pay package.
Still, Chen said, Cohen hasn’t resolved the larger question of “How does a $10 billion company take over a $50 billion company?”
GameStop didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Wall Street likes eBay’s direction
Cohen certainly isn’t getting any help from eBay. The company, founded in 1995, is in the midst of a turnaround centered on “focus categories” like trading cards, auto parts and collectibles.
Investors have largely applauded the plan, sending eBay’s shares up about 25% this year after a 41% rally in 2025. Citizens analysts, who have a market outperform rating on eBay stock, said in a May note that the company is experiencing strong momentum and has “done a good job of focusing on winnable categories.”
In its response to Cohen’s May offer, eBay’s board said that it was confident in the current management team and that the business has “delivered meaningful results” over the past several years. The board pointed to financing uncertainty, operational risks and leadership concerns as some of its objections to the deal.
“Cohen has yet to address these concerns in a meaningful way,” said Sky Canaves, a principal analyst at eMarketer, in an email.
But that doesn’t mean Cohen has been silent. Rather, he’s continued to defend the proposal in public appearances and from his X account, triggering subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission filings from eBay.
“When you look at how much the businesses together make sense and then you look at the fact that it’s within my circle of competence, I can’t stop thinking about it,” Cohen, who previously co-founded Chewy, said in an episode of the “All-In Podcast” released Tuesday.
Cohen hinted in the interview that he’s prepared to put $500 million of his own money into the offer, an addition that would cover only a small part of the funding gap.
A Gamestop store is seen in the Barton Creek Square mall on May 4, 2026 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Brian Quinn, a professor at Boston College Law School, said Cohen’s offer is little more than a distraction for eBay.
“Unless GME showed up with a huge pile of cash, the GME offer was only a promise of a ride on the meme-coaster, and no serious board wants any part of that,” Quinn said in an email.
Even apart from the eBay acquisition effort, Cohen’s bonus package had its share of critics.
Earlier this month, the City of Pontiac General Employees’ Retirement System filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in Delaware that sought to halt a shareholder vote on Cohen’s pay package until the board provided “proper disclosures” on the plan. It would have come up for a vote at GameStop’s annual meeting scheduled for July 7.
GameStop said in a filing that the lawsuit is without merit, and that the company “intends to vigorously defend against it.”
Paul Nary, an assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, said the pay package withdrawal suggests Cohen is serious about his pursuit of eBay, but “quite a few details need to be filled in” about how he’ll make it happen.
“Mr. Cohen seems to be escalating his commitment to the eBay deal, and maybe his signal that he wants to do it even without the outrageous pay package is sincere,” Nary said by email. “Yet whether this escalating commitment to buying eBay is a good thing for GME shareholders, I’m not quite sure yet.”
WATCH: Ebay rejects GameStop’s $56 billion takeover
watch nowVIDEO03:48EBay rejects GameStop’s $56 billion takeover bidSquawk BoxChoose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
About The Author
