00:00joins us now. This probably can't be the most surprising thing that they've rejected this bid, Caroline.
00:04Oh, this is hostile. Whether they're selling things on eBay to raise funds for it and then getting banned off
00:10e-mail,
00:10that's what's been happening to Mr. Ryan Cohen of late as he tries to sell bits of carpet from eBay
00:15or his own socks to raise funds.
00:17It's all a joke in that side. What's very serious is why it's lacking credibility right now.
00:21Look, they're pushing back on mainly the source of funding.
00:25Remember, TD had said, look, we've got $20 billion in a letter.
00:28Well, you're going to write a little letter saying that we could offer you $20 billion.
00:31But apparently, according to people familiar within that letter, you have to maintain investment grade.
00:36Now, that is highly unlikely, according to Bloomberg reporting and analysis,
00:40that you would ever be able to do such a buyout of a company that is a quarter of the
00:44value of eBay,
00:45brings in a quarter of the revenues than eBay to afford that amount of $56 billion offer.
00:52No wonder they're worried about the leverage, about the governance of this company.
00:55That's really what's being articulated in this letter. So they're pushing back.
00:57And we know this has already gone hostile in many ways.
01:00Well, I mean, let's not forget Ryan Cohen talking to Andrew Ross Sorkin saying, like,
01:06we'll just pay $26 billion using our shares. But the company's only worth $10 billion.
01:12How does that actually work?
01:13And many sort of out there, there's much being made of, of course, the people behind the big short fame.
01:19So whether it's Steve Eisenman or whether it's, of course, Mr. Berry himself talking that they've been offloading their GameStop
01:26shares and saying,
01:26look, don't get mixed up between creativity and debt. And at the end of the day, this is an awful
01:33lot of debt that's going to be taken on.
01:34It's a good news story for us all to get our teeth into. But how realistic is this?
01:38And thus far, the market hasn't been taking it seriously. As you say, market capitalization now down to $10 billion.
01:43We've seen eBay not near the $56 billion. So clearly, the market doesn't think that it's going to be bought
01:48for that sort of amount.
01:49And meanwhile, it's a distraction for the executives who've been trying to turn this company around, trying to show that
01:53they've got strategy.
01:54They've got to refocus, particularly on the collectibles. They've actually been building the market cap and the revenues of this
02:00company.
02:00And now this just means that they have to sit and go to board meetings to try and fight off.
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