Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource

Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource

@ValueAddedRS

Independent journalist - deep dives on ecommerce & big tech.🕵️‍♂️ eBay, Amazon, GameStop, Etsy & more. 100% ad-free & reader supported! Subscribe 👇

Tallahassee, Florida Katılım Şubat 2021
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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
Grateful for all the new $GME & $EBAY followers 🙏 For those just finding me - I’m Liz, founder of Value Added Resource, an independent platform covering marketplace news, policy changes, strategy, & industry analysis. I bring 17 years of operational experience working with companies selling on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & other marketplaces, giving me both a seller & industry perspective on how these platforms actually operate behind the scenes. 🕵️‍♀️
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource@ValueAddedRS

@_Cali2b @EvaderDirt I don't own stock in any of the companies I cover & don't run ads or accept sponsored posts either - but I am very gratefully reader-supported & you can sign up for a free or paid subscription to my newsletter. 👇 valueaddedresource.net/#/portal/signup

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
I'm sorry @foxenflask @BoilerPaulie I failed you in our space on Sunday.🫢 You know that story about Head of $EBAY Live telling a small seller to go practice somewhere else? That was Caroline Pougnier, who apparently picked that brilliant strategy up at BCG. $GME @ryancohen
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource tweet media
No_Pie_2109@No_Pie_2109

I haven’t gone too far down the eBay/BCG 💩 rabbit hole yet but on the surface, there’s a shit load of connections here. What’s the play here @ryancohen ? Should I buy puts on this shit and then we buy it in bankruptcy at 7 cents like $BBBYQ ? 🤔

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
A few have asked about $EBAY Boston Consulting Group connections. Haven't had much time to look yet, but first result in my Google search just now brought up ex-SVP International Jae(Jay) Lee - I covered his under the radar exit in 2021. $GME @ryancohen x.com/ValueAddedRS/s…
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource tweet mediaLiz Morton ~ Value Added Resource tweet media
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource@ValueAddedRS

$EBAY recently made some significant under the radar leadership changes in international operations. This follows the equally quiet & abrupt departure of VP Seller Experience Harry Temkin in June. Does CEO Jamie Iannone have a leadership problem? valueaddedresource.net/ebay-internati…

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
@RichJacob78 @marketswithmay @ConwayYen Yeah that was my thought as well. Likely normal and/or triggered by one of the reasons listed in the letter. At this stage I don't think there's reason to believe it was improper but I suppose we'll find out. x.com/ValueAddedRS/s…
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource@ValueAddedRS

@madorison @grok Yeah not a lawyer here either. Odds are it's probably normal/can be explained by one of the reasons stated in the letter - but it's still a good question to ask.

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MarketswithMay
MarketswithMay@marketswithmay·
$GME... Response to Q from @ConwayYen on what do I think about the posting of the TD Letter that is showing as confidential. TBH, Idk how normal or not normal it is, which is why I posted it over to @ValueAddedRS It is possible $ebay was told that since it is rejecting the bid the letter is no longer confidential. I'm not sure that's true. And then there is the fact they leaked it to the press. Which I think - given this letter - is very bad faith. This suggests their "strategic resource" is prepping for a hostile, IMO. Maybe I'm wrong. The other thing I'd mention is that the last few days, you've seen a reddit post and a Bloomberg article suggesting that the combined company would NOT be credit worthy using crazy numbers like 9x levered. That seems - well - crazy high. And also, since when did a reddit guy and Bloomberg have this incredible skill to do merger math. I mean, the most I've seen them do is a very poor sell-side version of earnings estimates. Moodies - in theory - said the extra leverage would not be great for credit. But that's likely 1) without a submission of the pro-forma combined financials, aka the post-merger financials, which include a) synergies (aka firing everyone), b) financing effects, and adjustments. 2) Assuming the Depop transaction goes through. I could be wrong on all of this... Mergers are really a combo of a) finance (what you've seen done in the past) b) legal (what lawyers do) and c) corporate strategy/press nonsense.
MarketswithMay@marketswithmay

$GME... wait... hold up... They included the TD letter as an exhibit which they entitled: "Highly Confident Letter from TD Securities (USA) LLC, dated May 1, 2026" Was this a suggestion from the #1 strategic M&A consulting firm? 🤣🤣🤣 Oh... this is going to be a very fun show... *see link in @ValueAddedRS post...

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
@madorison @grok Yeah not a lawyer here either. Odds are it's probably normal/can be explained by one of the reasons stated in the letter - but it's still a good question to ask.
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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource retweetledi
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
@ryancohen And it's not like this is first time - the worst example being when eBay used this stock photo for their press release about the stalking scandal Deferred Prosecution agreement. They changed it after I called it out, but you just can't make stuff up. x.com/ValueAddedRS/s…
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource@ValueAddedRS

$EBAY's official statement ironically uses stock photo showing Walker's West, the infamous on campus pub built by ex-CEO Devin Wenig. 🍻 Public exposure of this ill-timed vanity project was a pivotal catalyst in the cyberstalking incident. 👀 twitter.com/ValueAddedRS/s…

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
@dailygoat @ryancohen There are a lot of words one could use to describe a customer experience where some of your customers are afraid to speak publicly about their experience with your company - delightful is not one of them.
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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource retweetledi
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource retweetledi
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
Also, while I am not a fan of bringing in more consultant$...maybe if $EBAY had decided to care about that "ongoing execution of long-term business goals" thing a bit sooner, they wouldn't be in this situation?
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource tweet media
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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource retweetledi
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
For anyone who doubts $EBAY has a brand problem re retaliation: "I was super nervous about putting it out there...I was afraid that eBay is going to be like, "What are you doing?" and, you know, kick me off the platform." The man sells on the platform, makes software to help others sell on the platform & runs one of the best, most informative YouTube channels out there for sellers on the platform - this is not something that should ever even enter his mind of a second & the fact that it did says everything that needs to be said.
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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
Actually, they had been. Jones had been planning for a while, but not approved until January 2019 which is when activist pressure ramped up. Wenig was allowed to file under seal, so we don't know when his was approved. Either way, for board to allow both to go forward in light of activist-forced operational review was questionable & it's not a conspiracy to suggest that management absence may have been contributing factor to crimes - especially if you read all of the relevant court docs, which I have. x.com/ValueAddedRS/s…
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Joshua Enders
Joshua Enders@joshuaenderspdx·
@ValueAddedRS It’s plausible that these trips have been scheduled for a while. Not everything is a conspiracy.
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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
$GME is unattractive & not credible - says the board that thinks it's cool for the CEO & COO to take 4 weeks off at the same time during activist-forced op review....and then some employees happen to commit multiple federal felonies while they're gone. OK $EBAY, we see you.👍
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource@ValueAddedRS

I know we're having fun $GME $EBAY but I have a serious governance question: Do you know of any public co where it would be normal for CEO & (effectively) COO to take 4 weeks off at same time in middle of an activist-forced strategic review? Asking for all my new friends.🤔

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource retweetledi
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
@RayFinkle5859 @irishGMEape @thainguyeno It's been a wild couple days for sure but this whole thing started for me in 2021 from a different "buy the ticket, take the ride" moment (long story😂) & I'm having fun with this one too. As for writing a book....we'll see what happens. 😉
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Paul Branham
Paul Branham@BoilerPaulie·
I’m truly speechless. Thank you. Your leadership and skin-in-the-game approach have inspired a lot of us to think bigger and fight harder for real value. If you ever need another set of hands in the war room, I’d drop everything in a heartbeat. Just say the word. Appreciate you. 🙏
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Ryan Cohen
Ryan Cohen@ryancohen·
🎯
Paul Branham@BoilerPaulie

Allow me to translate this letter from eBay for those who don’t speak legalese: Ryan, We got your unsolicited offer to buy eBay for $125/share (half cash, half stock) supported by your 5% economic interest in eBay. Our board, backed by the usual crew of bankers and lawyers who get paid either way, “thoroughly reviewed” it. We’re rejecting it. Not because the math doesn’t work. Not because the highly confident letter from TD Securities for up to $20B on top of your $9B+ cash pile is fake. None of that. We’re rejecting it because your entire approach to running a company is an existential threat to how we like to operate here. Here are the reasons we feel this way, and the things we considered before paying consultants to write this: 1) We’d rather keep milking eBay as a “standalone” cash cow than let you turn it into something bigger and better. 2) Sure, you’ve got real financing lined up and you “know people” with deep pockets, but we’re going to call it “uncertain” anyway so we don’t have to engage. 3) Your plan would actually force real long-term growth and profitability changes we’d rather not be held accountable for. 4) The debt we pretended you can’t even obtain, the operational integration and focus on seller satisfaction, and most importantly, putting someone like you in charge of the combined entity all sound like a nightmare for our current leadership structure because all of us would have zero job security. 5) The valuation math only looks bad if you ignore the 46% premium you’re offering our shareholders and the upside from fixing eBay the way you fixed GameStop, which we are choosing to do and hoping nobody notices. 6) And I hope we buried the lede far enough here: Your governance and executive incentives are completely incompatible with ours. You and your board take zero cash, no salary, no bonuses, no golden parachutes. You buy shares with your own money and only get paid if shareholders win. We, on the other hand, like our nice, reliable annual payouts regardless of whether the stock is flat or the company is just coasting. We’re not about to hand over our golden goose to a guy who eats only what he kills. Look, eBay is “strong” and “resilient” in the way every entrenched public company says it is while handing out eight-figure checks and perks to the C-suite. We’ve done the usual incremental stuff: tweaked the marketplace a bit, returned some capital, and we’d like to keep doing that without any cowboy from GameStop coming in and demanding actual skin-in-the-game accountability. Can you just leave us alone? Our team remains focused on protecting the current regime and delivering “value”… mostly to ourselves and our consultants. Thanks, but no thanks, Paul S. Pressler
Chairman of the Board, eBay
(And proud beneficiary of the status quo)

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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource retweetledi
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
@PhantomBlack699 Ryan Cohen: taking the message direct all week long, even to eBay's sellers. $EBAY Board: let's call in expensive consultants to send a boilerplate email to the one person we know is sure to mention it publicly. They're making the Hollow Men points for him at this point.🤣
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Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource retweetledi
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource
One big problem with $EBAY redefining/restating past GMV in 2021 - AI/LLMs may pull data from outdated but still active press release pages.🚨 For example, Google AI overview provides $100B figure for 2020 instead of restated ~$87.61B.👀 $GME @ryancohen
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource tweet media
Liz Morton ~ Value Added Resource@ValueAddedRS

When $EBAY changed definition of GMV in 2021, they restated figures going back to 2018. 🗓️ The recast figures showed an average of ~$13B/yr for a total restatement of ~$40B, which eBay said was immaterial. 👀 $GME x.com/ValueAddedRS/s…

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