eBay’s board will meet this week to review an unsolicited $56 billion bid from GameStop’s Ryan Cohen, according to people familiar with the matter. The billionaire didn’t help his case Monday, when he squandered what goodwill he had with the Street in a disastrous CNBC interview, playing to his base rather than the investors he now needs.
Cohen’s problem is that he’s made a name for himself as a friend of retail investors by showing contempt for the legacy financial press and big institutional investors. But those investors are crucial if he is serious about taking over eBay. (That’s an open question; Cohen didn’t fully commit to staying around the hoop — “There’s ways to do something before next year,” he said of a potential proxy fight — and has already lost one of his biggest boosters.)
Asked to explain the deal math for the investors tuned in to Squawk Box, Cohen simply said,“It’s on our website.” A visibly exasperated Andrew Ross Sorkin and Becky Quick put in yeoman’s effort, with zero to show for it.
eBay shares traded up more than 12% going into Cohen’s interview, but now sit exactly where they were before Cohen announced his bid. He scored points with his loyalest fans for “mogging” CNBC, as one FinTwit commentator put it, but failed to convince any serious shareholders to publicly back him.
