Avoiding GameStop's unsolicited proposal and Ryan Cohen's weak execution leaves eBay better placed. eBay is easily worth over $100B today and should be worth much more in five years without GameStop and Cohen; Cohen is not the one to beat Amazon. x.com 

GameStop's Ryan Cohen is making one of the most aggressive streaks of insider purchases relative to market cap over such a short period. He bought another 700,000 shares at an average $24.41, about $17.1M, per an SEC Form 4 reported by @ReesePolitics, a show of conviction that ignores rising yields. x.com 

eBay's 18.5x multiple rests on earnings that look unsustainable. That valuation is well above most internet and retail peers despite no acceleration in fundamentals, while the trading-card-game tailwind is in its later innings. Rotational flows are the only apparent obstacle to shorting it. x.com  x.com 

GameStop looks like a reasonable bet despite misgivings about CEO Ryan Cohen, because it holds a ton of cash and is not buying eBay. x.com 

eBay is a business worth owning long term for its aggressive buybacks and its role as the go-to marketplace for used and hard-to-find items, with collectibles basically locked up. A pullback would offer a better long-term entry. A rumored GameStop bid for the roughly $50B company remains doubtful, as it would need serious financing. x.com 

eBay looks overpriced at $116.50 against GameStop's takeover math, making a short cheap convexity. GameStop's original $125 offer, half cash and half stock, now implies about $116-117 after GameStop's roughly 15% drop, while a rational 10% arb spread would need a $129-130 bid. Funding that with GameStop stock needs about 20% more or heavy leverage. eBay is not a pretty asset and hardly the tip of the spear in new commerce; a higher bidder is the risk. x.com  x.com 

GameStop's $56 billion, $125-a-share bid for eBay could unlock over $100 billion of value by turning eBay from a stagnant auction site into a true Amazon rival under Ryan Cohen. Synergies span collectibles, trading cards, live commerce and store pickups, plus cost cuts and AI upgrades. Cohen's track record stands out, and the absence of any Wall Street buy rating on GameStop is a strong contrarian buy signal. x.com 

GameStop lacks the money for its eBay bid, and Ryan Cohen's interview suggests he is using retail investors as exit liquidity. The proposal offers $125 per eBay share, half cash and half GameStop stock, valuing eBay equity at $55.5 billion, with a TD Securities letter for up to $20 billion of financing. The interview sent GameStop shares lower. x.com 

A GameStop bid for eBay looks unworkable, so both stocks should fade. GameStop would need to issue about 1 billion shares, wipe out its treasury and take on heavy debt, making Elon Musk's Twitter deal look easy. The deal probably never happens, and if a real offer is made, GameStop has no chance of trading up. x.com 

GameStop's eBay bid looks unlikely to get funded, because Ryan Cohen only gets the $20 billion of financing if the deal stays investment grade, which is not likely. Per @Stonkfather2021, buying 51% of eBay would take about $28.4 billion, covered by GameStop's $9.5 billion+ and TD Securities' $20 billion. x.com