GameStop has made a surprise bid to buy eBay, but what's behind it?
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I am Bissi Adibayo.
The US says it has started guiding stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and a billion-dollar deal shows just how valuable cricket has become in India.
This whole time it was right there on eBay.
Millions of finds, each with a story.
Today I'm here to talk about trading your old consoles, games, and accessories to GameStop.
Well, that's eBay, the online marketplace and GameStop, the video game retailer.
And now, in a surprise move that's caught a lot of people off guard, GameStop has made an unsolicited 56 billion bid to buy eBay.
So what's going on here?
Bill Denning is chief investment officer for W1M in London.
Bill, what do you make of this?
An audacious move by GameStop there?
Well, it's certainly that, yes. eBay is about four and a half times bigger than GameStop.
So it's always difficult for a smaller company to take over a bigger one.
And there are lots of questions about the detail on this, because it's not at all clear that he's got the financing to meet the target that he's set for when he wants to pay for eBay.
So I think we need to know more.
And while we wait, what does this mean for eBay itself?
Do they even want this deal?
Well, I don't know, but eBay has lost some customers.
Their customer count is still in the, it's about 135 million, but that's down from where it was.
So Maybe it is possible that a sort of reset of how they do things might be beneficial, but I'm not sure that the answer is in this transaction, at least not based on what we know about it yet.
And what about the customers?
I mean, we'd like to know, does any of this change how people use these platforms?
Well, I think, again, we'll have to see.
I mean, about 15% of the platform, eBay platform, is UK users.
About half of it's in the US.
So it does have a global reach.
I think there's still so much unknown about this.
He's announced this deal without it being at all clear how he can fund it.
So I think the jury's out.
And you can see that in eBay share price, which was up a lot more a few hours ago than it is now.
So I think some skepticism is warranted at this point.
All right, stay right there Bill, because there's a new twist in the ongoing disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US says it has already helped guide some vessels through, but very few ships are making the journey.
It comes hours after President Donald Trump said the US would help stranded ships out of the waterway, but Iran has warned it could target any US forces involved.
Michelle Visa-Bachman is senior analyst at the maritime intelligence firm Windward.
Well, I think there's been very little concrete information given about what it means to guide ships out of the waters.
Does that mean a US naval escort, for example?
And the Project Freedom is meant to have guided missile destroyers, land and sea based aircraft, perhaps some drone support and 15000 service members deployed.
But without any detail.
I think ship owners and marine insurers don't really have the guarantees that they need in place.
When you say guarantees, what sort of guarantees?
Well, safety and security.
Each vessel has 25 seafarers on board and those vessels are, in many cases, a high value asset.
Nobody is going to send a vessel in the area if there's a threat of a drone attack or a missile attack.
And let's talk about the seafarers you mentioned there.
Could you just paint a picture for us?
What kind of conditions are they dealing with at the moment?
The International Maritime Organization says there's about 20000 seafarers in the region and many of those have been stuck there since February 28th.
Some have had their contracts expired.
They can't be replaced.
Vessels are at anchor off ports.
They need to be resupplied.
They need potable water.
Some ship owners have been very good in providing that for their employees.
Others, maybe not so.
And then, on top of that, there's just the absolute psychological impact of being resupplied, stuck in a war zone, in a war that you've got no part in, and not being able to leave.
And have you been hearing from them?
What are they saying?
Many seafarers have spoken and talked about the stress and the difficulties of being stuck on a ship.
And when we're still talking about the crews, you know stuck out there and you know President Trump's plan to escort the ships out there.
Does this news even come to them as a relief or could it actually put more people in harm's way?
Well, we really don't know.
The last time there was a sort of change in status for the Strait of Hormuz was back in April 17, when Iran's foreign minister declared that the Strait was completely open.
And the desperation of many ship owners to have their vessels leave the strait was really evident, because the next morning we were tracking about 50 all at once that were trying to make that transit.
And then Iran's... turned around and said the strait was closed, fired on some of those tankers.
And we saw more than 30 vessels do a U-turn and reverse.
Subsequently, there were two European container ships seized.
As well on April 22.
Ever since then, there has been no confidence to safely transit, except for vessels that have been prepared to have the commercial discussions and the diplomatic discussions with Iran in order to do so.
That was Michelle Visa-Bachman, Senior Analyst at Maritime Intelligence Firm, Windward.
Now that ongoing disruption is continuing to have a spiral effect around the world, and one of the hardest hits has been felt by farmers.
The price of fertilizer has surged by around 80 since the war began, as about a third of global supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Phoebe Wangange is a smallholder farmer in eastern Kenya.
We used to have our fertilizer, the 50 kilogram bag was going for 3,000 Kenya shilling.
Currently, it is going for 5,500 shillings.
And now this fertilizer, despite being expensive, it is not readily available.
So you'll find the farmer faces food insecurity.
Let's bring back Bill Dilling, who's chief investment officer for W1M in London.
Bill.
With fertilizer prices up so sharply, there is this the kind of shock the markets might be underestimating.
Well, I certainly think it's possible that there's a disconnect, particularly between the stock market and energy markets, including including fertilizer.
The stock market continues to sort of shrug it off.
But the longer this continues, I think that's going to be harder to do.
Fertilizer price increases tend to come with a lag in terms of when it starts to impact food prices, but it's quite possible that will happen later in the year.
And that's particularly bad in Africa, where I think the fertilizer price increases we're seeing are a lot greater than we've seen here.
And now let's talk about oil prices.
Are the markets getting comfortable with higher prices, or is there more risk to come?
Well, I think there's more risk to come, because higher prices have negative impacts, because they raise concerns about inflation.
And central banks are certainly contemplating that, particularly on this side of the Atlantic, the real risk that Bank of England and the ECB raise rates.
And also because people are spending more money on oil and on gasoline, they've got less money to spend on other things.
So it's going to dampen growth.
So no, we're not out of the woods yet in terms of these energy price increases.
Bill Dinging of W1M in London.
Thank you.
Now a group led by Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and vaccine maker Ada Poonawalla has bought the Rajasthan Royals, a team in India's Premier League cricket competition, for about 16 billion.
It's a big jump from the $6 or $7 million it sold for back in 2008.
And there had been interest from a number of big names, including Manchester United co-owner Avram Glazer.
Well, that's it on World Business Express.
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