Gamestop wants to buy Ebay for 56 billion US dollars
The faltering game retail chain Gamestop has made a takeover bid worth billions to the resale platform Ebay. It is unclear where the money will come from.
The trade in physical games has been declining for years. Retailers such as Gamestop are feeling this most keenly. Over the past two years, the US company has closed around 1,300 stores worldwide. 14 stores in Switzerland were also affected. This does not stop the company from bidding 56 billion US dollars for the resale platform Ebay, as The Wall Street Journal writes. That is more than four times what Gamestop is worth: just under 12 billion US dollars.
Gamestop already owns five per cent of Ebay shares. CEO Ryan Cohen also has a commitment for a loan of 20 billion US dollars. A further 9.4 billion US dollars will be added from the company's own reserves. Part of the amount is to be paid in cash. Gamestop intends to borrow a large part from banks and investors. The rest is to be financed through the company's own shares.
Cohen wants to develop Ebay as a stronger competitor to Amazon, he told The Wall Street Journal. There are certainly parallels between the two companies. Like Ebay, Gamestop is focussing on reselling, collectibles and increasingly on online trading. Cohen wants to reduce Ebay's annual costs by a total of two billion US dollars within 12 months and thus make it profitable.
Ebay announced on Monday that it would carefully review its offering. The company has been trying to realign itself for several years. Three years ago, Ebay Classifieds was sold. Meanwhile, AI is increasingly being used to simplify shopping. The recently published quarterly figures show an increase in profit and turnover.
As a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles.
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