Ryan Cohen walked away from a $35 billion pay package. Then he reached into his own pocket for $500 million.
The GameStop CEO withdrew the proposed performance-based compensation plan to put the company’s attention on one thing, a takeover of eBay. The $500 million is a personal pledge supporting that offer, which would value the online marketplace at roughly $55.5 billion.
GameStop made its non-binding proposal on May 3, 2026. At $125 per share, split evenly between cash and stock, it carries a 46% premium over eBay’s stock price in early February 2026. GameStop points to approximately $9.4 billion in available cash and extra financing commitments to pay for it.
Why the extra $500 million? The pledge was designed to answer skeptics who doubted that GameStop could close something this large.
It did not move eBay. The board rejected the proposal shortly after it was made, saying it was “neither credible nor attractive.” Nothing in the record suggests a pause for second thoughts.
GameStop is still pushing. Cohen has kept talking up the deal in public discussions and interviews, and the company has signaled it will pursue the acquisition despite the rebuff.
The logic GameStop lays out is about two overlapping businesses. Both have significant footholds in collectibles and resale. GameStop has built up gaming collectibles and trading cards over several years, while eBay remains the dominant home for secondhand goods and auctions. Marketing and product development are where GameStop claims it could find over $2 billion in annual cost savings.
Shareholders get something concrete from the personal pledge: their CEO has money at stake alongside theirs. What they do not get is a path to the finish line. The risk is that GameStop is burning goodwill on a deal eBay has no interest in taking.
Cohen, for his part, is sure the combined company would be worth more than the sum of its parts. eBay’s board has said otherwise.
