[BREAKING] News Thread

[Moonface]

Venezuela could've said absolutely nothing and I think the same thing probably would've still happened. That said, I'm surprised how easily Maduro was grabbed and taken out of the country. I feel like no country would just have their leader be easily accessible to that sort of thing.

[Maniakkid25]

So, this is weird.

So, Pakistan is declaring war on Afghanistan after border clashes left several dead. This isn't weird; tensions have been rising in that area for a while, while we've been distractes with other world events. No, what is weird is what Pakistan is accusing Afghanistan of. They are accusing them... of being allied with long-time enemy India.

I want you to actually think about that. Afghanistan, controlled by an Islamist terrorist regime (the Taliban), is allying itself with a nation that has been trying to purge its Muslim population for the past several years. That doesn't pass the sniff test. A more reasonable explanation is also offered by them harboring militants that are targeting Islamabad (Pakistan's capital), but this immediately stuck out to me.

[Moonface]

I feel like declaring any sort of war on Afghanistan is somewhat suicidal? In the sense that the Taliban are probably a damn lot more gun-ho than a regular army is and don't seem to concern themselves with consequences for retaliating against people who attack them. That's not to say leave them alone but I guess it seems a bit futile to try and fight a group that even the U.S. couldn't get rid of fully?

[Maniakkid25]

Pakistan: "Alright, one news cycle all about me! Can't wait for this to get reported into the ground!"
US: "Hold my beer!"

So, if you haven't heard, the US and Israel are striking Iran again. This time, though, they mean business. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been comfirmed dead by Iranian state media. This is probably about to turn into an all-out war. Not WW3, but definitely not insignificant, either. We might be seriously looking at Iranian regime change.

[Dragon Lord]

Not really "breaking news", but for anyone who has been paying attention over the years to the extremely fast collapse of humanity when it comes to Pokemon cards, it finally reached the levels every one has been waiting for. It has been reported that someone has been shot in Indianapolis, with the police citing the cause being a "dispute over Pokemon cards."

Here is an article about it.

I think we all knew that this was going to happen eventually. Too many feral grown men fighting over shiny pieces of cardboard for children for this not to eventually happen. Thankfully it doesn't seem like the person who was shot died, but I'd be willing to bet it's only a matter of time until someone does lose their life in a fight over some Pokemon cards.

Whenever I feel bad and like I'm a loser in life, I just think of Pokemon card scalpers and I instantly feel a million times better about myself.

[Mr EliteL]

Knowing how manic those scalpers get when a store brings in a new shipment of sets, I'm mildly surprised it's taken this long for one of them to go to that extreme. Utterly sad, and well just hope some of them have come to realise Pokémon cards really aren't that worth, now, potentially losing your life over. Yes, thankfully the person who got shot so far has survived for now, but it could've gone the other way, unless his condition turns. Yeesh.

[Dragon Lord]

Unfortunately I don't think that's going to be a lesson they learn any time soon. To them, the appeal of being able to make "easy money" scalping Pokemon cards is worth the risk compared to having to leave their basements and get a job. Like these are the types of 30-year old men who have their mothers bring their chicken nuggets to their room for them still, because getting up and going and making your own food is just too hard and way too much work.

Pretty sure they'd rather get shot trying to get Pokemon cards than have to even look at a job application.

[Maniakkid25]

*seizure noises*

So, a surprise development has taken over the world of finance. Gamestop seeks to buy out eBay. No, you did not read that reversed; GAMESTOP is trying to buy eBay for $125 a share, with the deal totalling $56 billion! How the-- what the-- HUH?! Where the fuck did Gamestop come up with $56 billion dollars?!

For those that don't remember, Gamestop has been largely trending downwards, steadily marching into bankruptcy for many years now, with a freak accident spiking the share price to a ridiculous level back in 2021, and has basically been riding that high ever since. So for GAMESTOP to come out and say "yeah, we're gonna buy one of the biggest E-commerce websites out there to compete with Amazon" shows that Ryan Cohen does not have a single thought between his ears (don't ask who Ryan Cohen is; your life is better not knowing). What the fuck is going on?!

[Moonface]

Oops, I didn't go to the Breaking News thread before I made this post so didn't see you had posted this news in there @Maniakkid25. Not sure whether to keep it in this thread or move it back to that one right now.

Anyways, as I had after my original post, I really dislike how a company can just buy another one without actually having the funds to do it, moreso when it's buying a company worth more than itself. Just feels like some money laundering bullshit to saddle a company with debt, drain it of anything worth a damn, and then let the husk die from the debt thrusted onto it, like what happened to Toys R Us.

Original Post

BBC: GameStop makes $55.5bn takeover offer for eBay

Because BBC wants to paywall their stuff, I'm just going to quote the notable article contents:

Video game retailer GameStop has made a surprise $55.5bn (£40.9bn) offer to buy e-commerce giant eBay.

The cash and stock offer values eBay at $125 a share, $20 more than the company's value when trading ended in New York on Friday.

GameStop's chief executive, Ryan Cohen, said eBay could be much more successful under his leadership and even rival Amazon

 . . . 

[GameStop] still has around 1,600 outlets in the US and has seen something of a turnaround under Cohen.

Its net profit rose to $418.4m in 2025 - up from $131.3m the previous year - although sales fell.

eBay, which is worth about four times more than GameStop, was launched in 1995 as a marketplace for hobbyists and became one of tech's best-known brands.

But its user base has shrunk amid competition from the likes of Amazon. It currently has 136 million users worldwide, down from 175 million in 2018.

 . . . 

Under the proposed deal to buy eBay, Cohen would become the chief executive of the new firm and receive no salary or bonuses, being "compensated solely based on the performance of the combined company".

GameStop, which currently has a stock market valuation of around $11.9bn, said it has a commitment letter from TD Securities to provide around $20bn in debt to help finance the takeover.

Cohen said he planned to cut costs at eBay by $2bn within a year of a deal being completed.

This would mainly fall across eBay's sales and marketing division, which GameStop said had failed to attract more users to a "marketplace with near-universal brand recognition".

[Maniakkid25]

I was so confused when I saw my post disappear lol. I had put it in the news thread because I thought it was more news than gaming. Sure, it involves Gamestop, but this is more of a financial deal than anything. But any way you slice it, this is utterly insane.

[Moonface]

I was so confused when I saw my post disappear lol. I had put it in the news thread because I thought it was more news than gaming. Sure, it involves Gamestop, but this is more of a financial deal than anything. But any way you slice it, this is utterly insane.

And ya know what, fair point and that was the fence I was sitting on about where to put it, so back it goes.

I don't know what the used game market is like on eBay (haven't visited it in a decade or more) but surely if GameStop were to own eBay it would end up causing them to be competing with themselves when it comes to pre-owned stuff. GameStop doesn't have a particularly great trade-in program, and making people more aware of eBay could just lead to them opting to try selling their used games on that platform to get more money than trading them in to GameStop. I don't know how GameStop's trade-in program is for games that are harder to find and get sold for a lot more than normal, but @ShiraNoMai once bought a used copy of Xenoblade Chronicles from there in 2012 for $90+. There's no way GameStop would have given her that much if she walked in with a copy to trade-in, and if that were to happen in an era where GameStop owns and promotes eBay what incentive would there be to not just go sell the game on eBay for less than what GameStop are selling it for, but for more than what GameStop would give you for trading that copy in to them.

[Maniakkid25]

Well, it seems the market has responded to thjs announcement. It's bad. Really bad.

In the time since that announcement came out, the stock price is still recovering from a cratering of a 10% loss in value. Even worse, Michael Burry has decided this is the final straw, and sold off his share of Gamestop. For those that don't know, Michael Burry was basically the last big supporter of Gamestop, and the entire reason the Meme Stock fiasco started (it's a weird story, I'll let Dan Olson explain). So when HE gave up hope on Gamestop, other investors ran for the door following him. Now, as said, the stock has somewhat recovered in the intervening time, but it's still not a good look for a company saying "we're gonna buy out someone!" Especially when that company is bigger than you!

The old employees of Enix are looking at this with popcorn in their hands. See, back when Squaresoft and Enix were merging, the entire deal almost stalled out because Squaresoft lost a shitton of money on Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within. Why am I bringing this up? Because when you visibly lose that much value that fast, anyone looking to align itself with you is going to have a lot of good questions! Gamestop, wat r u doin?!

[ShiraNoMai]

Surely this is going to fly "antitrust" flags to the FTC, right? This move would almost solely dominate the buy/trade/sell market by and large, with Amazon being the only real competitor. I suppose the only thing in their way is that, well, who is really going to go one-on-one with the largest ecommerce enterprises on the planet? I won't be surprised if ebay just lets the drama play out but has always had the intent of denying the bid outright.

[Dragon Lord]

[quote="Maniakkid25" pid='37565' dateline='1777963686']There's no way GameStop would have given her that much if she walked in with a copy to trade-in, and if that were to happen in an era where GameStop owns and promotes eBay what incentive would there be to not just go sell the game on eBay for less than what GameStop are selling it for, but for more than what GameStop would give you for trading that copy in to them.

Yes, Gamestop's whole business model their entire existence has been to rip-off people on trade-ins and then turn around and sell their trade-in(s) for x2-x5 the amount they got for it. There's always been more incentive to just sell your games yourself on eBay or Amazon or any other marketplace, but  a lot of people don't want the hassle of having to list it, take pictures, shipping, etc. etc. and they just want a quick and easy "get it off my hands" experience, and in wanting that, they take a huge hit to what they're going to get for the game. 

I stopped buying used games at Gamestop many years ago, once I realized how much of a rip-off it was. When I get my PS3, I was looking to acquire a copy of Star Ocean: The Last Hope International and I had been looking at Gamestop to acquire it, thinking that buying used was the only way. Gamestop had a used copy listed for $20, but I decided to check Amazon for the game anyways just to see what a new copy was going. I ended up buying a new, sealed copy on Amazon for $12. Now you can say "well, that's only $8, it's not that bad", but hey, $8 is $8 and new is a huge difference from used (and probably scratched/not working because Gamestop is notorious for not actually testing the games they take in). 

I don't even see the point of Gamestop trying to buy eBay. The only way they make a huge profit off of it is if they buy it and then implement a ton of new fees on sellers. You're not going to stop people from selling on eBay instead of getting ripped off by trading in to you, so the only way you can possibly get a piece of that pie is by making the sellers give you more of their intake.

I hope this ends up killing Gamestop once and for all. I try my best not to buy anything from them any more, but every now and then they have a sale or a promotion for a game I want and I have to cave in and purchase from them.

[Mr EliteL]

If GameStop somehow inflicts a brain anuerysm to the holders of eBay so they accept, then good luck to them. Surely there's no way they'd go through with the deal unless they for whatever reason don't want eBay no more, and want to watch GameStop screw everything up, including themselves.

Yeah nah, can't see that happening. GS is throwing a ball into the abyss and won't get anything back apart from mocking and some type of repercussion.