Ryan Cohen (aka RC on X, per his legion of followers) suffered his latest setback on Tuesday.

Online marketplace eBay (EBAY) — chaired by former Gap (GAP) CEO and Disney (DIS) exec Paul Pressler — has rejected Cohen’s $55 billion deal to buy the company.

The company called the unsolicited offer “neither credible nor attractive.”

What, you honestly thought eBay would accept Cohen’s bid, if you can even call it a bid?

You thought eBay’s board would invite him into their San Jose, Calif., headquarters, put out a cheese board and sparkling water, and open their books?

The thought of this happening was absurd as soon as the play crossed the breaking news wires several weeks ago!

This is not the first time I took issue with Cohen.

In August 2022, I implored Bed Bath & Beyond investors not to believe that then-shareholder Cohen wanted to bring great things to the chain. He later dumped all his stock, and today the company remains on life support in some form.

In June 2023, I issued an open letter to Cohen inviting him to debate me on Yahoo Finance about what he planned to do with GameStop (GME). The lack of disclosures has continued, and so have the retailer’s dreadful financial results.

Cohen never took me up on my challenge.

The reality is Ryan Cohen is no aspiring Warren Buffett (as his fans think), and his play for eBay has likely been a media-grabbing joke designed to get him a few headlines.

There was no reason at all for eBay to consider this.

For one, eBay has shown good top- and bottom-line progress under CEO Jamie Iannone. GameStop’s sales have continued to dwindle.

Two, eBay’s stock is up 56% in the past year, while GameStop’s is down 16%. Since Cohen was named GameStop executive chair in June 2023, shares are down slightly — the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up 71%.

And three, this would have been a high-leveraged deal that probably would have put the combined GameStop and eBay into junk rating territory. What combined company wants to start their time together viewed as junk by creditors?

“It [the deal] really didn’t [pass the sniff test],” B. Riley chief market strategist Art Hogan said on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid (video above). “Sometimes you look at deals and say, well, maybe this could make sense. There was no way to get there on this particular deal. It felt like someone wanted to tie together two rocks to see if they would float. And clearly there was no way to get this financing through.”

So in the wake of what looks to be a failed eBay play, I re-up this one to Ryan Cohen.

Ryan, I challenge you again to come on my show and debate me for one hour, no commercials, about GameStop and this eBay bid. I want to go line by line on your plan for GameStop for the next decade. I then want to go line by line through your plan for eBay and the funding plan.