Wall Street Lunch: GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Reconsiders EBay Takeover: Bloomberg

GameStop (GME) CEO Ryan Cohen is reportedly considering withdrawing his offer to acquire eBay (EBAY) and instead could propose a different deal, such as a partnership or joint venture. With GameStop shares down 28% since May, the company is looking at alternative ways to capitalize on its retail footprint alongside eBay's catalogue of collectibles, Bloomberg reported. The deal could also include representation on eBay's board. GameStop is currently eBay's second-largest shareholder, with a 9.75% stake. In May, GameStop extended a $56B offer for the outstanding eBay stock, split 50% cash and 50% stock. To finance the deal, Cohen said he would tap GameStop's $9.4B cash and liquid investment war chest, along with a $10B line of credit from TD Securities. Despite Cohen's insistence the deal would be "transformational" for GameStop, Michael Burry sold his entire GME position soon after, saying: "Wall Street does indeed mistake debt for creativity and does so constantly." Among active stocks, the cost of Apple's (AAPL) 256GB iPhone 18 Pro will be about 38% higher in Q3 than the comparable model launched in 2025 , due to surging component costs, according to TrendForce Research. Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg is unveiling a new open-source model called Muse Glimmer , a version of the company's most powerful model, Muse Spark. "Soon we'll also release the weights for Muse Spark 1.2, our latest foundation model," Zuckerberg said. "Meta is a strong supporter of open source." And Archer Aviation (ACHR) is soaring after saying it will acquire Boeing's (BA) Wisk Aero, SkyGrid, and Insitu subsidiaries. Wisk is the only company to have designed, built, and flown six generations of eVTOL aircraft. SkyGrid has developed a ground-based, aircraft-agnostic air traffic management solution, while Insitu specializes in designing, developing, and manufacturing uncrewed aircraft systems. In other news of note, a consortium that includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly closing in on a deal to buy a stake of about 30% in Liverpool FC. An announcement on a deal with the consortium, led by Amit Bhatia and including Bezos and Facebook (META) co-founder Eduardo Saverin, could come as soon as this week, Sky News reported. The investment would reportedly value Liverpool at $6B, making it one of the richest deals in sports history. The S&P 500's (SPY) dividend yield has fallen to a record low of 1.04%, as stock prices have risen faster than dividend payments. The yield has reached much higher levels during periods of market weakness, peaking at about 3.87% in the early 1990s before trending lower over the following decades.