Forget Earnings Season. It’s Takeover Season.

Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing

The Motley Fool

Investing, Business

4.3 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A bevy of acquisition chatter has the Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing team digging down into what can make or break a deal. The team discusses GameStop’s proposal to buy eBay for $56 billion, a rumor regarding interest from Anthropic to buy Atlassian, and lessons from a great acquirer in Berkshire Hathaway.Jon Quast, Rachel Warren, and Travis Hoium discuss:-GameStop’s $100 billion market cap ambition-The potential acquisition of eBay-Anthropic’s rumored interest in Atlassian-Other software companies that may be attractive targets-Hidden gem lessons from Berkshire HathawayCompanies discussed: GameStop (GME), eBay (EBAY), Atlassian (TEAM), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)(BRK.B), United Rentals (URI)Host: Jon QuastGuests: Travis Hoium, Rachel WarrenEngineer: Kristi WaterworthAdvertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, "TMF") do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement. We’re committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You can forget earnings season. It's suddenly takeover season. You're listening to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing.
0:09.0	Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing. I'm John Quast, and I'm joined by Fool Contributors, Rachel Warren.
0:16.0	And filling in for us today is Travis Hoyum. Today we have a show that is going to center around mergers and acquisitions, even though
0:24.5	we're in the throes of earning season, but the weekend news flow about acquisitions was just
0:31.2	too juicy to pass up.
0:33.3	We're going to try to be true to our hidden gems theme here.
0:36.1	We're going to try to look at some hidden things that might make a acquisition better than
0:39.8	others, make it break it, you know?
0:42.0	But let's start with the lead here, and it's the big headline over the weekend.
0:46.3	And that's that GameStop is entering the conversation, right?
0:49.9	Let me frame this.
0:51.5	Back in January, GameStop CEO, Ryan Cohen said he was looking for an acquisition.
0:56.2	And he said the acquisition needed to be big. In fact, he said it needed to be very, very, very big.
1:02.8	He was looking for a resilient business. He was looking for an undervalued, publicly traded company,
1:07.9	and specifically looking for sleepy management, in his words, and now we know what the
1:13.3	company is. They are targeting eBay. So over the weekend, GameStop, company with a market
1:19.3	cap of about $11 billion, offered to acquire eBay for nearly $56 billion. And it's a complete
1:25.9	takeover. Ryan Cohen is proposing himself as the new CEO of the
1:29.9	combined company. And it's just a crazy deal. Have we ever seen anything like this? And is it even
1:35.5	possible? Yeah, I mean, there's definitely historical precedent for this. I mean, you have a famous
1:39.9	example back in the 1980s, right? With Capital Cities. They're a relatively small media company.
1:44.4	They acquired ABC. That was a company that was nearly four times at size at the time.
	...

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