GameStop’s chief executive Ryan Cohen has asked the company to withdraw a performance-based pay award that could have been worth as much as $35 billion, saying he wants the retailer’s leadership fully focused on its operating performance and its proposed acquisition of eBay. Announced on 23 June 2026, the board approved withdrawal removes a package that had drawn shareholder criticism and a lawsuit, and comes as Cohen prepares to make the case for one of the more audacious takeover attempts on Wall Street.
The award itself was extraordinary in both scale and conditions.conditions. Introduced in January 2026, the CEO Performance Award was tied to demanding targets that would have required Cohen to lift GameStop’s market value more than tenfold and substantially improve its profitability before any payout. Its size and the conditions attached drew objections from some shareholders over disclosure and governance, and it became the subject of a shareholder lawsuit. By requesting its removal, Cohen forgoes a potential windfall in favor of concentrating attention on the operating business and the eBay pursuit, a decision the company framed as ensuring leadership is not distracted as it advances the deal.
The eBay bid is the strategic center of the story. GameStop submitted a non-binding proposal to eBay’s board on May 3, 2026 to acquire all the e-commerce company’s shares it does not already own at $125 each, in a combination of cash and GameStop stock, evaluating the transaction at roughly $56 billion. Cohen has argue that a combined company could become a stronger competitor to Amazon. eBay’s board rejected the approach on 12 May, with chairman Paul Pressler describes it as neither credible nor attractive and citing concerns about GameStop’s long-term financing growth viability and the proposed leadership structure. Cohen has since pressed on, raising GameStop’s stake in eBay and signaling he may take the offer directly to eBay shareholders through a proxy fight if the board refuses to engage.
The contrast between bidders and target is strong. eBay is a far cry larger company than GameStop, and the proposal would see the video game retailer attempt to absorb a business several times its size — an ambition that rests heavily on GameStop’s substantial cash reserves. The company reported first-quarter net sales of $835.3 million, up from $732.4 million a year earlier, record net income of $389.6 million, and liquidity of around $9.7 billion including $8.4 billion in cash and marketable securities, and in June approved a new $2 billion share buyback. That cash pile accumulated during Cohen’s turnaround of the business, is both the foundation of the eBay gambit and the reason investors are scrutinizing how he intends to deploy it.
Withdrawing a pay package of this magnitude while pursuing a transformational acquisition is a calculated move in how Cohen is positioning himself with shareholders. Having faced criticism and litigation over the award, removing it defuses a governance flashpoint at precisely the moment he needs investor support for an unconventional deal, and aligns his stated priorities with the operating performance and acquisition he is asking shareholders to back. It also reframes the narrative around the eBay bid from one about executive enrichment to one about strategic conviction, ahead of the detailed rationale GameStop has said it will publish this week.
How shareholders and eBay will respond to that shortly presentation will shape whether the bid advances or stalls. Cohen, who joined GameStop’s board in January 2021 and became chief executive in September 2023 after steering the company back to profitability through aggressive cost cutting is now staking his credibility on a far larger and riskier side ambition. Whether he can convince eBay’s investors to override theirs board, and persuade his own shareholders that deploy GameStop’s cash on such a deal is sound, will determine if the eBay pursuit becomes a defining strategic move or an overreach — and the materials due this week are the next test of his case.
