The online retailer Ebay has rejected the billion-dollar takeover offer from the video game retailer Gamestop. The offer is neither credible nor attractive, Ebay board chairman Paul Pressler wrote in a letter to Gamestop CEO Ryan Cohen published on Tuesday. Therefore, after discussions with independent advisors and careful examination, the board of directors decided to reject the offer. Pressler justified this, among other things, with eBay’s prospects as an independent company and with the uncertainty surrounding the financing of the offer.
A week ago, Gamestop boss Cohen made public his intention to take over the much larger eBay for a price of around $56 billion in the form of cash and shares. Cohen justified the project by saying he wanted to build a stronger competitor to the online leader Amazon. Investors were already skeptical as to whether his offer of $125 per eBay share would come to fruition: the share was quoted at $107 in pre-market US trading on Tuesday.
