• Kazel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 hour ago

    love it how clueless people are. we have our fun at gamestop. what has this to do with technology anyway?

  • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    Anyone who hasn’t actually watched the interview, you really, really need to. “Combative” doesn’t come close. It’s a train wreck. Ryan is repeatedly pressed on where the fuck they’re getting the money for this, and he not only fails to answer the question, he doesn’t even seem to understand it. There are long stretches of silence as he gormlessly stares at the camera before repeating, endlessly, “Half cash, half stock” like that somehow explains anything. I’ve seen Trump pressers that were more coherent.

  • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip
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    1 day ago

    I don’t understand how this deal can even happen

    GameStop is only worth 11 billion. Trying to buy a company worth 5x what they are…

    They’re offering half cash (which they don’t have, because they’d be worth at least 25 bn if they did), no one is going to lend them that much money, because again, they don’t have the collateral to support it.

    And they’re thinking they can sell more of their own stock to raise funds…diluting their current stock, which would require they sell 3x their present value in stock to acquire??? Diluting their current shares in the process.

    • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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      5 hours ago

      They have like $9B cash, and a note from TD for another $20B, which covers the cash half.

      The stock half wouldn’t even really be dilutive, since they would add the balance sheet of eBay to their own, and eBay stock would cease to exist. There are currently something like 450M shares; assuming 1B new shares at $25B to facilitate the purchase, that’s 1.45B shares of a company with a market cap of $11B + $48B = $59B., which is roughly $40/share.

      • ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        They are diluting the value of eBay’s shares.

        For what purpose? So they tie up with what is worthless junk stock ?

        This will go nowhere.

        • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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          40 minutes ago

          They are diluting the value of eBay’s shares.

          Kinda, but not really. Each share becomes $56 and like 2 new shares. It’s more like a fat dividend than a dilution.

          You should look into Cohen’s track record before assuming it’ll go nowhere.

      • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip
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        4 hours ago

        The stock half wouldn’t even really be dilutive, since they would add the balance sheet of eBay to their own

        There’s a debt of the other 25+ billion that gets added to them. That’s coming from somewhere, because it goes to eBay’s shareholders, not to eBay.

        • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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          2 hours ago

          The debt is only $20B, even then it still works out to about where it’s trading now, so still not really dilutive. And it’s still under 50% leverage, which is honestly pretty typical for a large company. Assuming Cohen actually has a plan to boost profits, that debt isn’t particularly concerning.

    • worhui@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Same way Kmart bought sears. It’s fairly common for smaller companies to buy larger ones at this point.

      Remember the discovery ‘channel ‘ bought Warner brother whole ass media conglomerate and at the end of the deal the people who made that happen made 10’s of billions.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      All leveraged buyouts ought to be illegal, not just this one.

      • kinsnik@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Leverage buyouts are just a symptom of the problems in the system

        In theory, leverage buyouts make perfect sense, kinda like a mortgage. You get a loan to buy something with that same as a collateral.

        The fact that these usually ends in worse conditions for everyone is not because leverage buyouts are the problem, but the private ownership. Toys r’ us should have been owned by the workers, man utd by the fans, as so forth

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Cohen added that eBay’s earnings power could increase materially under tighter cost controls, arguing earnings could potentially double over a relatively short period.

    Okay, yeah, he’s fucking delusional.

    (Also, ‘GameStop stock sinks’ feels like a mild tongue twister.)

    • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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      5 hours ago

      Eh, a big part of GameStop’s recent strategy has been getting into collectibles trading. eBay is one of, if not the, biggest market for collectibles, and they own TCGPlayer. That said, counterfeits and other fraud is a problem on eBay. One of the proposals is to use GameStop stores as authentication hubs, so listings can be verified.

      Additionally, eBay spends a lot, arguably way too much, on marketing, not to mention bloated upper level compensation packages. Then there’s the friction of the service itself, like seller caps (ostensibly to combat fraud, but a bit overzealous).

      I think there’s far too much potential for improvement to call the claim “delusional”.

    • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I try to buy physical copies since it generally costs the same and I don’t have to worry about losing it due to some licensing bullshit or account issue in the future. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target don’t really stock many games anymore either so it’s about the only place left to buy them.

      • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        That’s a fun theory, but the discs have so little to do with most gaming these days anyway I think you are just as likely to get hosed due to some licensing or account bullshit with a disc as you are without. Seems less and less games work just from the disc every year.

        • ell1e@leminal.space
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          1 day ago

          Yeah the real fix is probably gonna be the stop killing games movement, since it seems like the issue is more that publishers seem to have forgotten what a purchase is and less so the difference of physical vs digital.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        You’re much, much better off buying a GoG digital copy if they sell it, and backing the installer up.

        Physical disks have DRM, and most of my old physical disks are useless now. New ones are likely even worse.

    • iamthetot@piefed.ca
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      1 day ago

      Thankfully for Gamestop, the market of people interested in buying physical game discs is larger than you alone.

    • Sundray@lemmus.org
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      1 day ago

      There are people who are stuck in the circle of selling back old games to help pay for their next game.

  • nucleative@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Two companies that are desperate for disruption. It’s like one drowning person swimming over to another drowning person to rescue.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The proposal raises immediate questions about financing. GameStop’s market value is only a fraction of the roughly $56 billion implied deal size, and while the company has lined up a $20 billion financing letter from TD Bank, the funding gap remains substantial.

    Cohen offered limited clarity on the structure during what at times was a combative and awkward interview, repeatedly directing viewers to the company’s website for details. 

    “We are offering half cash, half stock, and we have the ability to issue stock in order to get the deal done. But the full details of the offer are on our website,” Cohen said. “We will see what happens.”

    The black leather jacket is not helping