GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen on His $56 Billion Plan to Take Over eBay

Ryan Cohen built Chewy from nothing into a $3.35 billion acquisition target in 2017, then turned around a dying GameStop into a profitable company with $9.7 billion in cash. Now he wants to do the same at eBay—and he's putting $500 million of his own money behind the bet.

In this conversation, Cohen lays out his operating philosophy, what he learned from his mistakes at GameStop, and his three-part plan to transform eBay if he can get control.

The Chewy Playbook: Pennies, Psychopaths, and Suppliers

Cohen started Chewy after abandoning a planned jewelry business. He noticed that neighborhood pet stores hadn't been disrupted by Petco and Petsmart, and that pet food had recurring revenue—unlike jewelry. The strategy was simple: replicate the neighborhood pet store experience online at scale, while matching Amazon's supply chain execution.

The business was a "game of pennies." Cohen negotiated directly with suppliers, stayed in Google AdWords until 4 or 5 AM, and viewed supplier relationships as purely transactional. "If our suppliers are sending us gifts in the mail, that's a really bad sign," he says. "It means we're overpaying. If our suppliers are telling us they never want to speak to us again, it means we're getting the right price."