EBay Can Unlock $1.2B in Savings Without GameStop's Help

Ryan Cohen’s unsolicited $55.5 billion bid to absorb eBay has a seductive paper-thin pitch: slash $2 billion in overhead and instantly rocket eBay’s diluted GAAP earnings per share from $4.26 to $7.79 in the first year. Yet the proposal’s speculative cash-and-stock structure, which requires taking on $20 billion in new debt, has been met with deep skepticism from analysts and investors.

The real-world data from Steak ‘n Shake’s adoption of the Bitcoin Lightning Network flips the script on corporate retail finance, showing a 50 percent reduction in payment transaction costs compared to legacy credit card networks, according to company leadership. Instead of converting those savings back to fiat, the company funneled the capital directly into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to fund employee bonuses.

Applying that same math to eBay’s massive $80 billion annual gross merchandise volume reveals a staggering annual opportunity cost. Assuming a standard 3 percent merchant swipe fee, replicating Steak ‘n Shake’s proven 50 percent cost reduction would unlock approximately $1.2 billion annually that is currently paid to legacy payment networks. The event took a bizarre turn when eBay permanently banned Cohen from its platform just two days after the offer, citing "placing the eBay community at risk."

Instead of letting a leveraged buyout dictate its future, a native crypto payment layer could permanently restructure eBay’s economics in favor of its 135 million active users. By fixing its payment layer and cutting out banking monopolies, eBay can drive its own historic earnings boost, proving it doesn’t need a savior to dominate the future of digital commerce.

The $56 Billion Takeover Proposal

GameStop’s proposal, largely seen as a hostile bid, offers $125 per share for eBay, a significant premium. However, the deal is structured as a highly speculative mix of cash and GameStop’s own volatile stock. To finance the cash portion, the company presented an unconfirmed $20 billion financing letter from TD Securities. This debt-heavy approach to acquire a company four times its size has left eBay’s stock trading well below the offer price, signaling market doubt over the deal's viability. A core part of Cohen’s value proposition involves slashing $2 billion from eBay’s budget, with $1.2 billion coming directly from sales and marketing.

A Better Blueprint: The Payments Layer

An alternative path for eBay lies not in aggressive cost-cutting, but in technological upgrading. Steak ‘n Shake’s integration of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network provides a powerful case study. The burger chain confirmed it cut payment processing fees by half, a figure that would translate to $1.2 billion in annual savings for eBay. This isn't a theoretical gain; it's a proven efficiency unlocked by moving away from the high-fee environment of traditional credit card cartels, which charge large merchants like eBay an estimated 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent on transactions.

Why Payments Beat a Takeover

The payment integration strategy offers three distinct advantages over Cohen’s plan. First, it protects shareholders from the toxic corporate leverage and dilution inherent in the GameStop proposal. Second, instead of extracting value by firing sales staff, it extracts value from banking intermediaries and returns it directly to sellers, strengthening the marketplace’s core. Finally, it organically dominates the high-end collectibles market—a key pillar of Cohen's thesis—by allowing a global, liquid pool of digital asset wealth to transact seamlessly on the platform.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.