eBay blocked the account of the head of GameStop because of the auction for the sake of the site's takeover

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said his eBay account was locked after an auction of personal items - including a pair of socks - that he arranged on the site to fund his bid to be acquired by eBay for $56 billion, Cohen revealed at his X.

On Ma. 6, the GameStop CEO shared on social media that he was "selling junk on eBay to pay for [a deal] with eBay." Bloomberg notes that Cohen's account contained many offers of various goods totaling tens of thousands of dollars. The businessman was selling a pair of socks, GameStop signs, a Halo 2 statue, vintage baseball cards and an unopened package of Windows 2000 software, among other items.

As a token of appreciation for the purchase, Cohen promised that each buyer would receive a personally signed copy of the deal letter GameStop sent to eBay's board of directors, as well as free shipping.

However, just hours after the "auction" began, Cohen reported that his eBay account had been blocked.

eBay did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment on the GameStop CEO's account.

GameStop sent an offer to buy eBay for $125 per share to the online marketplace's board of directors on Ma. 3. To finance the deal, GameStop received a letter from TD Bank saying it would be willing to provide up to $20 billion in debt. However, Cohen is still being peppered with questions about how he will be able to pay for the deal, Bloomberg points out: eBay is about four times the size of GameStop.

However, eBay confirmed that it has received GameStop's offer and will consider it. WSJ Cohen reported that GameStop currently owns about 5% of eBay's securities.

At the premarket on May 7, eBay shares are down 0.99%; they are up 24% since the beginning of the year. GameStop shares have added about 25% over the same time. On Ma. 7, they are down 0.48%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor