GameStop offers $56 billion to buy eBay. Here's what to know - ABC News
https://share.google/QA15EKQDrU5RYC6gNSo this rumor has been circulating for about a week now but I was waiting to see if this was concrete or would flake out but seems official. And is gaining traction. Gamestop is officially taking sight on Ebay leaving fans to ask how does a company like gamestop randomly go from slashing stores, layoffs, verge of bankruptcy and odd business model switches to randomly deciding to offer to buy one of the largest online marketplaces ever created? Gamestop came up with a lot of phantom cash. Most people had their market cap pegged at much less. People question the actual intentions of all this. Gamestop claims "we want to be more competitive with Amazon" which to me sounds ambitious but perhaps genius.
But my question is, is this good for either company?
Does buying Ebay give Gamestop so much more letigious overhead and navigation nonsense to endure changing their competitors from best buy and Walmart to literally amazon and temu? How does that merger look? If done right. It could make Gamestop into a gaming pop culture centric "cool kids Amazon" lol. Reeking of Iroc Leather and Surfboard wax. Just the new site that has it all. It happened with tik tok. A rebrand can go a long way. But taking aim at Amazon is like challenging Jordan 1 on 1. Does gamestop have the leverage with Ebay behind it? What advantage is gained?
Does being bought by gamestop risk making Ebay like..... well.... GAMESTOP lol. Who as a company has shown a very poor track record with avoiding scam returns, handling retro games, making sure people ship legit merch, offering fair market fees for sellers and being accurate on descriptions, packaging and returns...
My thoughts are
1. This isn't going to happen. If it were close to happening Amazon will outbid them.
2. If it does. Gamestop is going to start to transition itself into collaborative thrift stores that act as hubs to sell and ship Ebay items for independent sellers. Perhaps acting as a Ebay drop off point the way staples acts as a Amazon drop off point. Which would make them a middle man.
3. As someone who uses Ebay maybe 1250 times a year and most of my collection comes from there. Versus walking into a gamestop maybe twice a year if you're lucky. This just scares me. Ebay has a great customer service model and a buyer first pride about it that has helped me many times. Gamestop not so much although I dont hate gamestop. I just find it to be DK Oldies on a larger scale.
How does this news make everyone feel? Any yays or nays in the room? And if it happens what do you hope this entails for modern gaming as a whole?
