GameStop’s surprise bid for eBay isn’t the first meme-able thing that Ryan Cohen has been involved in.
Cohen, GameStop’s CEO, is at the helm of the company’s effort to buy eBay for $55.5 billion. He was also the focus of Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets five years ago as retail stock traders pushed up GameStop’s price — the high point of the “meme stock” craze.
The unsolicited offer for eBay, which the company made public on Sunday, dwarfs GameStop’s own $11.9 billion market capitalization, leading some to question how the gaming retailer could afford the deal.
Here’s how Cohen rose to prominence, from cofounding pet company Chewy through the meme stock craze:
- His net worth is around $5 billion. Cohen’s wealth has surged since joining GameStop’s board five years ago, before becoming CEO, according to Forbes. Shortly after his board appointment, stock traders on Reddit started driving up the retailer’s stock price.
- He never finished college. Originally from Montreal, Cohen dropped out of college to focus on the business world — a path inspired by his father, who ran his own business, Cohen told Forbes in 2020.
- He cofounded pet supply website Chewy in 2011. With Michael Day, Cohen built Chewy into an online pet supply retailer and ultimately sold the business to PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017. A dog owner himself, Cohen said he saw a chance to sell products, such as dog food, that Amazon hadn’t yet broken into.
- He became a “meme king” for investors on Reddit. After small-time investors, including many on r/wallstreetbets, ran up GameStock’s stock price in 2021, Cohen gained a reputation as a “meme king” among retail stock investors. Some went so far as to parse his posts on X, formerly Twitter, looking for evidence of what he might do next. Cohen, for his part, has rarely engaged with the investors.
- He’s led a turnaround effort at GameStop. After becoming the chairman of GameStop’s board in 2021, Cohen made big changes at the challenged retailer, including cutting costs and developing a new strategy that focused the chain’s stores on collectibles more than video games. Cohen became GameStop’s CEO in 2023.
- He took a stake in Bed Bath & Beyond — and made money on it. Cohen took a roughly 10% stake in the home furnishings retailer in 2022. Later that year, he sold the position and made $68 million, Fortune reported at the time.
- He hasn’t fully explained how GameStop can afford to acquire eBay. Cohen offered few details about the $55.5 billion offer in a Monday interview on CNBC or in company filings, instead repeatedly referring viewers to the company’s website and stating that the deal would consist of half cash, half stock. GameStop’s market cap on Monday was around $11.9 billion, and its cash and liquid investments totaled about $9.4 billion.
- He’s spoken out against “parasitic” corporate bosses. In a February X post, Cohen took aim at independent directors and other corporate leaders who, he said, are paid whether or not companies succeed. He referred to a “new, parasitic class of corporate bureaucrat: The Risk-Free Insider.” The post led investor Michael Burry to compare Cohen to Warren Buffett, another critic of how much corporate leaders are compensated.
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