aipod / all-in / 2026-06-23-gamestop-ceo-ryan-cohen-s-56b…
ALL-IN · Jun 23, 2026

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen's $56B Plan to Take Over eBay

🎙 Ryan Cohen · David Friedberg
26 claims3 predictions20 facts6 notable quotes raw JSON ↗

In a one-on-one All-In interview, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen walks David Friedberg through his path from founding the pet e-commerce retailer Chewy (built head-to-head against Amazon and sold in 2017 for $3.35 billion) to becoming an activist investor and ultimately CEO of GameStop. Cohen describes turning GameStop around through maniacal cost-cutting and a pivot into collectibles and trading cards, which he says now make up 42% of revenue. The bulk of the conversation covers his roughly $56 billion bid to acquire and run eBay: he argues eBay has stagnated since COVID under professional management, alienated its sellers, and should be far larger. He lays out a three-part plan — pulling $2 billion of costs out, scaling eBay Live commerce using GameStop's stores, and building a marketplace for in-game digital items — and explains the 50/50 cash-and-stock structure, the board's rejection, and his commitment ($500 million of his own money) to keep pushing even if it means going hostile.

SEGMENTS

0:00
GameStop's reputation and the media

Ryan opens with his core grievance: everyone hates GameStop and the media wants it to fail while rooting for an entrenched, overpaid board and management with no skin in the game.

1:54
Building and running Chewy

How Ryan founded Chewy after abandoning a jewelry venture, out-executed rivals against Amazon on a low-margin recurring-purchase model, and built his team and supplier-negotiation playbook around will over skill.

11:07
Selling Chewy and turning to activist investing

After the 2017 sale (and the stock taking off afterward), Ryan shifted to taking concentrated, activist positions in established, out-of-favor companies.

13:15
The GameStop investment thesis and CEO seat

Why Ryan was drawn to the most-hated, shorted stock, his original console-cycle survival thesis, and how a sub-5% passive stake became a 13D activist position, board seats, and ultimately the CEO role.

19:36
Turning GameStop around: the collectibles pivot

Ryan abandons the failed make-GameStop-like-Chewy strategy for cost-cutting and a pivot into collectibles and trading cards via an extendable trade-in model.

27:27
Why eBay, and Ryan's circle of competence

Ryan explains he wants to do something big and that eBay is complementary to GameStop in secondary markets, collectibles, and authentication — and squarely within his e-commerce circle of competence.

31:50
eBay's history, moat, and decline

Ryan credits eBay's first-mover marketplace moat but argues it fell behind Amazon, Shopify, and social/live commerce, mishandled PayPal/Skype/StubHub, and stagnated post-Donahoe with bloated costs and unhappy sellers.

44:39
Ryan's three-part plan for eBay

His plan: pull $2B of costs out to boost earnings, scale eBay Live commerce using GameStop's 1,600 stores as studios/fulfillment, and build a new marketplace providing liquidity for in-game digital items.

49:33
The bid: rejection, structure, and going hostile

The eBay board's rejection, the 50/50 cash-and-stock structure, the failed vote to lower the special-meeting threshold, and Ryan's commitment of $500M of his own money and willingness to escalate to a hostile bid.

NOTABLE QUOTES

“Everyone hates GameStop, and it seems like everyone in the media basically wants us to fail and wants them to succeed.”
Ryan Cohen · 0:00 — The grievance that frames the whole interview — Ryan as the underdog fighting an entrenched establishment.
“I was on the toilet.”
Ryan Cohen · 30:46 — His deadpan answer for where the idea to make a play for eBay first struck him.
“be as psychotic as me. And that was the team that we put together. It was just a bunch of fellow psychopaths.”
Ryan Cohen · 9:45 — Memorable encapsulation of his will-over-skill, all-in hiring philosophy.
“But life is too short to do it small.”
Ryan Cohen · 27:27 — His stated motivation for swinging at a ~$56B eBay takeover instead of building GameStop organically.
“if our suppliers are sending us gifts in the mail, that's a really bad sign. It means we're overpaying.”
Ryan Cohen · 7:56 — Counterintuitive operating wisdom on keeping supplier relationships transactional.
“It's a voting machine, but on the long term, it's a weighing machine.”
David Friedberg · 58:28 — The classic markets framing Friedberg uses to argue GameStop's results will outlast the media narrative.

PREDICTIONS ON THE RECORD

Dated and falsifiable — full record at /api/episode/<id>.

David Friedberg · long term · 58:28
If GameStop keeps delivering performance, those betting on its failure will ultimately lose, because long term the market is a weighing machine.
“if the performance continues to be delivered at GameStop, people that might want to see the company fail are going to lose”
Ryan Cohen · unspecified · 44:39
The addressable market for a marketplace in in-game digital items could be much larger than eBay's physical-items marketplace.
“I believe that addressable market is significantly larger than, could be much larger than eBay's marketplace on physical items”
Ryan Cohen · immediate (upon taking over eBay) · 44:39
He would immediately improve eBay's earnings by pulling $2 billion of costs out of the business.
“immediately improving earnings through cutting costs and pulling two billion dollars of costs out of the business.”

WHO CLAIMED WHAT

Every position taken in the episode, attributed to its holder, with conviction (0–1) and the verbatim receipt.

Ryan Cohen — 25 claims

opinionconviction 0.8527:27
Acquiring eBay is genuinely a good idea — unlike selling pet food online or even GameStop, this play actually makes sense.
“So that was selling pet food online, not a great idea, and GameStop, I don't think was such a good idea either. This is actually a really good idea”
assertionconviction 0.832:22
eBay has failed to grow with the rest of e-commerce and the business should be significantly larger than it is.
“they haven't grown along with the rest of e-commerce ... that business should be significantly larger.”
opinionconviction 0.734:54
eBay could have become Amazon but squandered its early lead.
“eBay could have been Amazon.”
opinionconviction 0.7537:03
Amazon charges sellers a lot and is over-earning on them — sellers move inventory but dislike the margins, leaving room for an alternative.
“They charge a lot of money to their sellers. ... but they don't like the margins.”
opinionconviction 0.837:21
He would keep eBay asset-light as a marketplace and would not take on first-party inventory.
“I would not be interested in taking in firsthand inventory. I like the marketplace model”
opinionconviction 0.7539:58
eBay should grow organically through focus on a single brand rather than acquisitions or sub-brands.
“building it organically through eBay and through Focus is where I believe makes the most sense.”
opinionconviction 0.738:36
eBay's recent acquisitions don't make sense.
“they've recently made acquisitions, which don't make sense.”
assertionconviction 0.8540:29
eBay isn't growing while the rest of e-commerce is, and it's making less money while spending much more.
“they're not growing, everybody else in e-commerce is growing, and they're making less money and they're spending a lot more”
assertionconviction 0.8540:29
In a marketplace like eBay the sellers are the customer, and current management alienates and takes its sellers for granted.
“the sellers, in a marketplace model like eBay, the sellers are the customer.”
assertionconviction 0.9543:00
eBay's management is leaning on outside consultants rather than solving root-cause problems themselves.
“I would bet everything that they're working with multiple outside consultants”
opinionconviction 0.7543:00
When a company shifts from founder-operator to professional management, it loses the hands-on, root-cause problem solving.
“you go from a business that founder, operator run to business with a professional management team is, you know, you lose the one-on-one and just the rolling up your sleeves”
opinionconviction 0.8544:39
Live commerce is a major growth vector where eBay should be the category leader, but its platform and lack of creators hold it back.
“eBay live should be significantly larger. They should be the category leader in the space.”
opinionconviction 0.844:39
Unlike NFTs, in-game digital items have real utility, so a marketplace providing liquidity for them is valuable.
“it's what NFTs could have, people thought they were, but ultimately they had no real utility. In-game items actually have real utility.”
opinionconviction 0.744:39
Physical collectibles like art and trading cards are fundamentally an ego play with little intrinsic utility.
“You own art? Like, what is that? At the end of the day, it's an ego play.”
assertionconviction 0.850:06
The board's financing-uncertainty objection is invalid because the financing comes off eBay's own balance sheet.
“if we can't get the financing, it means that eBay can't get the financing because we're getting the financing off of eBay's balance sheet.”
opinionconviction 0.854:46
The shareholder vote ultimately comes down to who would be a better fiduciary and grow the business — and he believes that is him.
“the vote is on who's going to be a better fiduciary of capital and who can grow this business.”
assertionconviction 0.8554:46
eBay's CEO has no skin in the game — selling tens of millions in stock and never buying a share with his own money.
“has not bought a single share of stock in the open market with his own money and has been selling tens of millions of dollars.”
assertionconviction 0.854:46
eBay's management team has no skin in the game and aren't builders — just overpaid employees of major companies.
“you've got a management team with no skin in the game? They're not builders. They haven't built anything themselves before.”
opinionconviction 0.859:45
In hiring, he prioritizes drive and motivation over resume credentials — will over skill.
“I look for will over skill.”
opinionconviction 0.87:56
Supplier relationships should be transactional, not friendly — suppliers sending gifts signals you're overpaying.
“if our suppliers are sending us gifts in the mail, that's a really bad sign. It means we're overpaying.”
opinionconviction 0.919:36
Trying to make GameStop more like Chewy was the wrong strategy.
“the strategy was to make GameStop more like Chewy. And that was the wrong strategy.”
assertionconviction 0.8519:36
Although both are retailers, Chewy and GameStop are totally different businesses, so the same playbook doesn't transfer.
“they're both retailers. They take the same playbook, but that's not that was not the case. Totally different animal.”
opinionconviction 0.827:27
eBay is within his circle of competence because he understands e-commerce far better than physical retail.
“it's a business that I understand a lot better than physical retail because I know a thing or two about e-commerce”
opinionconviction 0.816:02
The best investment opportunities appear where there is the most pessimism and fear.
“typically that's where you see opportunities is when there's a lot of pessimism and fear.”
assertionconviction 0.717:51
GameStop's original thesis was that an upcoming console cycle would let the cyclical business survive.
“The original thesis was that there's an upcoming console cycle and that they're probably going to survive until the upcoming console cycle.”

David Friedberg — 1 claim

opinionconviction 0.658:28
The media keeps GameStop framed as a meme stock because admitting it was a real business would mean admitting they were wrong.
“To maintain their credibility, they have to continue to make you seem less credible.”

QUERY THIS EPISODE

agent access
# full structured record
curl 'https://aipod-two.vercel.app/api/episode/all-in-2026-06-23-gamestop-ceo-ryan-cohen-s-56b-plan-to-take-over-ebay'

# or over MCP
aipod_episode { "id": "all-in-2026-06-23-gamestop-ceo-ryan-cohen-s-56b-plan-to-take-over-ebay" }