GameStop’s $56 billion pursuit of eBay stirs social media hype and doubts

May 5 (Reuters) – GameStop’s $56 billion bid for eBay ignited intense debate on social media, as retail investors greeted the potential deal with a mix of excitement, skepticism and meme-stock humor.

• Top comments on Reddit were split between enthusiasm over the e-commerce giant that such a merger would create, and skepticism about how GameStop would finance such a large deal.

• Some users supported the rationale of combining GameStop’s loyal retail base with eBay’s online reach, arguing the deal could create a formidable digital commerce player.

• The video game retailer, which has a market value of $10.7 billion and is looking to take over a much larger company, has said it has access to $20 billion in potential debt financing from TD Securities.

• GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s tense CNBC interview on Monday, where he bristled at questions about the deal structure, also became meme fodder.

• Users raised their eyebrows at the announcement of Michael Burry’s exit from his GameStop position on Monday, just months after he likened Cohen to the legendary investor Warren Buffett.

• On Stocktwits.com, eBay was one of the most talked-about stocks, with the platform’s tracker showing message sentiment over the past 24 hours as “extremely bullish.”

• Retail investor forums can offer an early read on how speculative corners of the market are digesting major corporate developments.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)