GameStop shareholders approved a routine-sounding item on Tuesday: more authorized Class A shares.<\/p>\n
The timing complicates that read. Six days earlier, Sony confirmed<\/a> it will stop manufacturing physical PlayStation game discs starting in January 2028, closing the book on the exact product category GameStop was built to sell.<\/p>\n Sony\u2019s move wasn\u2019t really a surprise. Nearly four in five full-game purchases on PS4 and PS5 already happen digitally, based on Sony\u2019s own disclosures cited by TheStreet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Physical video game spending fell to $1.5 billion in 2025<\/a>, the lowest total since Circana began tracking the category in 1995.<\/p>\n Related: Ryan Cohen passes on GameStop payday to keep pushing one acquisition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n GameStop has spent two years adjusting to that decline. Collectibles and trading cards made up 41.8% of first quarter revenue in fiscal 2026, up from 28.9% a year earlier, according to a GameStop SEC filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n The company also closed 430 stores<\/a> across 42 states in January 2026 alone, shrinking a footprint built for a disc business that keeps shrinking with it.<\/p>\n That pivot doesn\u2019t touch GameStop\u2019s other big project. In May, GameStop submitted a non-binding proposal<\/a> to acquire all of eBay at $125 per share in cash and stock, a 46% premium to eBay\u2019s pre-bid price.<\/p>\n eBay\u2019s board rejected the offer nine days later, calling it \u201cneither credible nor attractive\u201d in a letter from chairman Paul Pressler, according to CNBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The board\u2019s stated concern was financing. GameStop\u2019s plan leaned on roughly $9.4 billion in cash and liquid assets plus up to $20 billion in third-party financing, a structure that left several analysts unconvinced, according to CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n GameStop kept building its position anyway. The company directly owns 4.3 million eBay shares and holds options tied to another 39 million, according to a Reuters report<\/a>, giving Cohen leverage regardless of whether a deal ever closes.<\/p>\n Brandon Bell / Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n All five GameStop directors were re-elected Tuesday, and shareholders approved executive pay and the company\u2019s auditor, according to a Seeking Alpha report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those items were never in doubt. The share count was the one that mattered.<\/p>\n The approved amendment expands GameStop\u2019s authorized Class A common stock to 2.5 billion shares, according to Proactive<\/a>. That gives the company room to issue new stock as currency in an eBay deal without asking shareholders again.<\/p>\n Final results, with the exact new share ceiling, go to the SEC<\/a> in a Form 8-K.<\/p>\n The stock didn\u2019t celebrate. GameStop (GME<\/a>) closed Tuesday down 2.46% at roughly $22.20, per the Seeking Alpha report, before edging up<\/a> about 0.5% in after-hours<\/a> trading once the vote results posted.<\/p>\n Shares slipped further in early Wednesday trading, changing hands near $22.10, according to data from TheStreet<\/a>. A capital structure fix doesn\u2019t move a stock the way a signed merger agreement would.<\/p>\n More Retail:<\/strong><\/p>\n GameStop\u2019s two stories are really one story. The disc business that funded the company for two decades is winding down on a fixed date, and collectibles alone won\u2019t replace it at scale.<\/p>\n The eBay bid is Ryan Cohen\u2019s answer to that math, a bet that owning a marketplace matters more than owning shelf space.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s vote didn\u2019t buy eBay. It bought GameStop the paperwork to make an offer eBay\u2019s board can\u2019t dismiss on financing grounds alone.<\/p>\n Whether that\u2019s enough to get a deal done, or just extends a standoff already three months old, is the question GameStop still has to answer.<\/p>\nGameStop\u2019s first eBay bid ran into a wall<\/h2>\n
Tuesday\u2019s vote wasn\u2019t really about the board<\/h2>\n
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A retail survival plan that depends on someone else\u2019s company<\/h2>\n