Ryan Cohen thinks everyone is hoping for his and his company’s failure. Speaking with Bloomberg Tech on Thursday, the GameStop CEO spoke about his desire to acquire online auction site eBay.
While talking about his goals for the acquisition and what it would mean for the business, Cohen went on a tangent after being asked about what he may have learned from GameStop’s past experiment with NFTs that he could use moving forward. Cohen brought up GameStop making $143 million in Q1, which he says is the highest operating earnings in the company’s history.
The Media Is Against GameStop
When the idea that many were surprised at GameStop’s recent earnings, that’s when Cohen brought up the belief that those outside of the company hope for its failure.
“Because everybody in the media wants GameStop to fail,” Cohen said. “Explain that to me: why everybody in the media, in the mainstream media, wants GameStop to fail.”
The Montreal native then started speaking on how GameStop’s business plans are the embodiment of what Amercian business should be.
“There’s nothing more American than GameStop committing its balance sheets, and this company, which is a great American company—eBay—being aligned with shareholders,” he said. “That’s how this country was built—is risking your own capital. And if the business succeeds, you make money. And if the business fails, you lose a lot of money.
“What I want to understand is why everybody wants GameStop to fail? Both in its core business and in this transaction. What world do we live in where we’re rooting for an entrenched management team that has no skin in the game and someone that’s risking their own capital—and there’s nothing more American than that—you want us to fail. I want to understand that.”
Since its initial proposal to acquire eBay for $55 billion was rejected in May, Cohen has not given up his efforts to acquire the company. Cohen gave up a proposed $35 billion payout in order to focus on the acquisition, and, when asked about it during his interview, he was quite blunt with his feelings.
“We’re coming for eBay one way or another,” he said.
What do you make of CEO Ryan Cohen’s belief that “everyone” wants GameStop to fail? Leave your thoughts down in the comments, or join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Discord.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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