Shock offer to buy eBay for $55.5 billion

The markets were given a shock when they saw that Video game retailer GameStop had made an offer to purchase pre-eminent pre-owned platform eBay.

The $55.5 billion cash and stock offer values the company at $20 more per share than the stock market in New York had closed at on Friday.

GameStop’s CEO Ryan Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that eBay should be worth a lot more than it is, and that “it could be a legit competitor to Amazon.”  

As part of the acquisition, Cohen would install himself as chief executive of the merged company.

Market analysts have largely poured scorn on the likelihood of the deal going through, and shares in GameStop fell by almost 10% on Monday in New York, while eBay’s rose by 5%.