this post was submitted on 04 May 2026

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109

GameStop makes $55.5bn takeover offer for eBay (www.bbc.com)

submitted 2 days ago by TheTechnician27@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] RedFrank24@piefed.social 36 points 2 days ago

In other words "I'm going to take out a shitload of debt, buy your company with it, and then make YOU pay it off or go bankrupt. EIther way I win"

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

From article:

The proposal does not sound like a "terribly good offer" as it would saddle eBay with GameStop's debt, said retail industry analyst Sucharita Kodali from market research firm Forrester.

Uh... Gamestop has , depending on who one asks, no debt, or some sort of convertible thing to do with their warrant issuing last year. This article seems mis-informed. It's an ambitious gambit, but would certainly not saddle E-Bay with any significant new debt.

[–] tomalley8342@lemmy.world 55 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Not misinformed brother. The quote is likely talking about the $20b GameStop is going to borrow for the purchase itself. It's a pretty common trick in leveraged buyouts to saddle the company you bought with the debt that you racked up to buy it in the first place.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 14 points 2 days ago

Capitalism is truly the grift that keeps on grifting.

How do you end up in a system where essentially:

acquiring an organizers to profit from it, requires its workers to produce more additional wealth to afford gifting themselves to you in the past.

[–] red_bull_of_juarez@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah, that was my first question: Where the hell does Gamestop take that kind of money from? I am actually surprised they "only" need to borrow 20bn.

[–] AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

They issued some shares when their share price was high and didn't have huge amounts of debt compared to other companies of a similar value.

[–] NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago

That was almost exactly what happened with the Saudis buying EA

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

Ah, OK. I get that angle.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Gamestop has, depending on who one asks, no debt

GameStop has 4.36 billion in debt who tf are you asking and can I borrow their confidence?

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But that same link says they have $9B in Working Capital and Invested Capital. What's the true net value then?

[+] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world -16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Ah, yes, I forgot that if I rack up $3000 in CC debt but have $10,000 in the bank, I actually have zero debt, "depending on who you ask".

Really tried to "um ackshually" the article with the financial acumen of a stoned teenager?

Edit: Anyway, to answer your question because "does GameStop currently have debt" is kind of beside the question: leveraged buyouts often put debt toward the company being bought out. Thus, the debt being discussed is likely the debt from the merger, not the $4.36 billion GameStop has right now. I got sidetracked because of your completely bullshit, confidently incorrect claim.

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Big corps always wave away debt if they can pay it off via revenue, or future promises of revenue, or ... reasons. Why is it different here? Honest question. They have more cash on hand, it seems, than their current debt, so could pay that at any time. Why is it a true liability?

[–] Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

It's not different here, debt is debt, you might say "despite the debt it's a good stock" or something like that but you don't pretend $4B in debt just doesn't exist.

[+] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world -21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'm neither stoned nor a teenager

"financial acumen of a stoned teenager". Can you just not read either, or do you not understand this is that thing you learn about in 3rd grade called a "comparison" and not literally calling you a stoned teenager? I'm getting concerned here.

You also clearly have no idea what an "ad hominim [sic]" is either.

make no pretense to be some financial guru.

You certainly considered yourself well-informed enough to say the person BBC News quoted had no fucking idea what they were talking about without doing the most basic research first.

[–] TJDetweiler@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Very hinged response.

[+] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world -9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It's 2026; my patience for the intellectually lazy has been running on fumes for a decade and is on its deathbed. If you want to police your tone around these braindead slobs, that's your business.

For my part, I'm fine with treating these Dunning–Kruger "oh yeah, all those experts are wrong" morons who know fuck-all about even the basics of what they're saying like they deserve to be treated: as an object of ridicule.

Just too much work for them, I guess.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Uhm actually ddg is just bing with marketing, does not block microsoft trackers, giving them a monopoly on that data. Use Searxng if you actually want no trackers.

And like. The economy isn’t real. You need to stop getting so worked up about these semantics. Debt isn’t a real thing, money is not a real thing, its all just psychotic monkey scribbles. Made up shit.

The only type of debt that does exist, is the one humanity has towards earth. A debt that exits in the labour, resources and energy that it will take to balance our planet out so it can continue to co-exist with us.

Sorry, just trolling by acting “stoned teenager”

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only type of debt that does exist, is the one humanity has towards earth.

Untrue. We all owe a debt... to ourselves, for always being there. But... does that mean we're the Earth? This is so crazy.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Actually both profit and debt are just global loss.

Sell a forest to let a company turn it in firewood for sale but it doesn’t sell so the company make a loss.

In the end nothing of value got created but the temporary heat of the logs that got sold. For the profit that is now used for a new casino or famous art, the world has lost a forest, a local contributor of healthy air.

All life that consumes life generates loss. To live is to destroy. That is inevitable.

Maybe we should aim to embrace that fact rather than hide from it. Hold the knowledge in 2 hands.

Because the problem is not that to live we must destroy, its the excessive disrespectful way we go on with it noting the profits and value without the damage we have done to obtain those numbers.

Maybe public display of loss and debt, proof of how little cost there is for the creation of a measurable value could be the new winning.

Once we start counting loss and not profit or economy will make more sense, as money to first have and then buy with becomes obsolete in contrast to measuring how much damage you have done compared to your peers. Socially, winning means being able to brag with how much you can do with so little.

No more bloating numbers for the appearance of success, but actual success in showing how creative and efficient we can be to get the most life out of our species.

(This is a wip btw)

[–] TheVoiceOfRaison@thelemmy.club 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Don't Gamestop have around 30bill + in bitcoin? Why not use that?

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

Maybe this is how they launder it.

[–] Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social 16 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Is the whole GameStop pump and dump thing still going?

[–] badcommandorfilename@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Diamond Hands!

[–] prex@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago

🚀

[–] db2@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

6 years would be a pretty long time for that.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

"We already ruined ThinkGeek, what could go wrong?"

[–] TheVoiceOfRaison@thelemmy.club 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If this does go through, I hope they change nothing about ebay. It just works.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

eBay has a darker history than GameStop fwiw (Behind the Bastards did a couple episodes on that). I do think it could be a beneficial merger, pivoting to online sales should be a winner, especially with reused hardware becoming more attractive thanks to fkn LLMs.

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

But wait, if they take over eBay wouldn't they control a majority of the used game market?

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

Better i buy the thing i have for months in a tab opened now.

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 2 points 2 days ago

With V-bucks?