Ryan Cohen Questions eBay’s $2.4B Marketing Spend

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen publicly questioned eBay’s $2.4 billion marketing budget after the e-commerce site posted a Senior Manager of Marketing Effectiveness role and suspended his seller account.

Cohen wrote on X in response to a seller thread about support failures and account access problems, quote-tweeting a Toronto-based job listing that assigns the role to determine “where the money is going.” The posting, job code R0074539, sits in eBay’s Marketing & Communications division and reports to the Head of Marketing Efficiency. eBay’s fiscal 2025 sales and marketing spend totaled $2.4 billion.

The exchange follows GameStop’s $56 billion takeover offer for eBay, a proposal valuing shares at $125 each. TD Securities provided a financing letter for up to $20 billion. eBay’s board reviewed the proposal with independent advisors and rejected it as neither credible nor attractive.

Shortly after the takeover bid became public, eBay suspended Cohen’s seller account. The company characterized the account activity as one that “posed a risk to its community.” Cohen had listed GameStop-branded items on the platform, including store signs and a square of branded carpet.

With the acquisition proposal rejected and his account closed, Cohen has turned public attention to eBay’s operations and the marketing-efficiency hire. The job posting’s stated mandate to assess marketing effectiveness and optimize spend was central to his critique.

eBay has not publicly linked the account suspension to the takeover dispute. The back-and-forth highlights an ongoing public disagreement between a prominent activist CEO and the board of a large e-commerce company.