Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 8 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS Chief Executive Officer — Matthew Gline Unknown Executive (Mosliciguat program lead) Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWAYS Cash Position -- $4.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, with no debt, prior to receipt of the $950 million upfront from the $2.25 billi...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 8 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS Chief Executive Officer — Matthew Gline Unknown Executive (Mosliciguat program lead) Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] TAKEAWAYS Cash Position -- $4.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, with no debt, prior to receipt of the $950 million upfront from the $2.25 billion Moderna settlement expected in July. -- $4.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, with no debt, prior to receipt of the $950 million upfront from the $2.25 billion Moderna settlement expected in July. RA Study Results (IMVT-1402) -- Open-label data showed ACR20, ACR50, and ACR70 response rates of 73%, over 50%, and over 33%, respectively, in a study population refractory to both JAK and TNF inhibitors. -- Open-label data showed ACR20, ACR50, and ACR70 response rates of 73%, over 50%, and over 33%, respectively, in a study population refractory to both JAK and TNF inhibitors. Patient Population Characterization (RA trial) -- 65% of enrolled patients had previously failed JAK inhibitors, and virtually all of these had also failed TNF inhibitors, representing a heavily pretreated and difficult-to-treat group. -- 65% of enrolled patients had previously failed JAK inhibitors, and virtually all of these had also failed TNF inhibitors, representing a heavily pretreated and difficult-to-treat group. Safety Profile (IMVT-1402) -- "nothing new regulated from a safety signal perspective, identified," and no impact observed on LDL across hundreds of patients dosed, based on DMC review. -- "nothing new regulated from a safety signal perspective, identified," and no impact observed on LDL across hundreds of patients dosed, based on DMC review. Brepocitinib Breakthrough Designation -- FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation for brepocitinib in cutaneous sarcoidosis during the quarter. -- FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation for brepocitinib in cutaneous sar...
eBay may have shot down GameStop’s $56 billion buyout offer this month, but the videogame retailer continues to show interest in the online auction platform.
eBay may have shot down GameStop’s $56 billion buyout offer this month, but the videogame retailer continues to show interest in the online auction platform.
All that doom and gloom about the state of the electric vehicle market? That’s just an American problem. The rest of the world can’t get enough EVs, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. EV sales surpassed 20 million units last year, capturing 25% of the global market. Growth was highest in China and market share in other regions has also been picking up pace. In Latin Am...
All that doom and gloom about the state of the electric vehicle market? That’s just an American problem. The rest of the world can’t get enough EVs, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. EV sales surpassed 20 million units last year, capturing 25% of the global market. Growth was highest in China and market share in other regions has also been picking up pace. In Latin America, for example, sales grew by 75%. Meanwhile, sales in the U.S. are stagnant, with EVs hovering around 10% market share. The EV market has gone K-shaped, and automakers of all stripes — legacy and startup — had better pay attention. Sales figures in the U.S. were held back last year by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which killed EV tax credits, along with policies that have prevented Chinese automakers from entering the market. For startups like Rivian and Lucid, which are heavily invested in the U.S. market, it certainly makes for a more challenging road ahead. Legacy automakers are somewhat insulated since they can lean on more profitable fossil fuel vehicles — at least in the short term. But without a solid EV strategy, they stand to lose more global market share as consumer tastes and expectations shift. Elsewhere, Chinese automakers have been driving the upper leg of the K higher. The growth has been most apparent in China, where nearly 55% of new vehicles were electric. Affordability helps: more than two-thirds of EVs sold in the country were cheaper than the average fossil fuel car. Chinese automakers also helped drive EV sales higher in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Europe. More than half of all EVs sold in Southeast Asia were made by a Chinese company, for example, while Europe imported over half a million Chinese EVs. The stunning growth of EVs in Southeast Asia and Latin America punctures one prevailing theory that electric cars would be too expensive for developing economies. EV prices have been on par with internal combustion vehicles for the last two...
When NIO ( NIO ) announces its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, Wall Street expects the Chinese electric vehicle, or EV, maker to post EPS of -$0.12 on revenue of $3.76B. The EV maker delivered 29,356 vehicles in April 2026, an increase of 22.8% year-over-year, though volume cooled 17.3% from March’s record highs. Cumulative deliveries for the Shanghai-based EV pioneer officially crossed the 1....
When NIO ( NIO ) announces its first-quarter earnings on Thursday, Wall Street expects the Chinese electric vehicle, or EV, maker to post EPS of -$0.12 on revenue of $3.76B. The EV maker delivered 29,356 vehicles in April 2026, an increase of 22.8% year-over-year, though volume cooled 17.3% from March’s record highs. Cumulative deliveries for the Shanghai-based EV pioneer officially crossed the 1.11 million mark as of April 30. For the first quarter, the company expects total revenue between RMB24.48B ($3.5B) and RMB25.18B ($3.6B), representing an increase of approximately 103.4% to 109.2% from the same quarter of 2025. Citi rated NIO a Buy, with a price target of $7.60. Citi analyst Jeff Chung highlighted that Nio should deliver a relatively stable gross profit margin, or GPM, in 1Q26 due to its superb product mix upgrade. This implies that its Q2 GPM trend should further expand quarter-over-quarter and very likely trigger a Q2 non-GAAP returning positive level. Wall Street analysts and Seeking Alpha analysts are bullish, rating NIO a Buy. However, Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating is cautious, rating the EV maker a Hold. Seeking Alpha analyst Juxtaposed Ideas highlighted that NIO remains a Great Buy, driven by diversified EV offerings across different price points and multi-year bottom-line improvement prospects. The analyst noted that NIO exceeded Q1 '26 delivery guidance and projects robust FY2026 volume growth of 40–50%. Additionally , its service revenue is expanding through its growing EV base via after-sales and battery charging/swap services. “Q4 '25 marked NIO’s first positive adjusted operating/net margins, with the ongoing cost optimization underpinning future margin targets beyond near-term memory chip/battery headwinds,” Juxtaposed Ideas concluded. Over the last two years, NIO has beaten EPS estimates 38% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 38% of the time. Over the last three months, EPS estimates have seen three upward revisions against one downw...
What Happened? A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after a broad-based sell-off hit the semiconductor sector following news of a potential strike at Samsung and a stake sale by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), which rattled global chip supply chains. These events highlighted significant supply-chain risks, triggering a sharp reversal across the chip industry. Adding to the s...
What Happened? A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after a broad-based sell-off hit the semiconductor sector following news of a potential strike at Samsung and a stake sale by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), which rattled global chip supply chains. These events highlighted significant supply-chain risks, triggering a sharp reversal across the chip industry. Adding to the sector's weakness were rising valuation concerns, inflation fears, and broader market jitters that led to renewed selling pressure on major companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Micron Technology. Furthermore, ongoing supply constraints for rare earth materials, which are used in semiconductor manufacturing, reportedly caused delays and higher input costs for firms in the sector, compounding the negative sentiment for chip-related stocks. The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Among others, the following stocks were impacted: Analog Semiconductors company Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ:MPWR) fell 4.8%. Is now the time to buy Monolithic Power Systems? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free. Processors and Graphics Chips company Allegro MicroSystems (NASDAQ:ALGM) fell 4.4%. Is now the time to buy Allegro MicroSystems? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free. Zooming In On Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) Monolithic Power Systems’s shares are very volatile and have had 21 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business. The previous big move we wrote about was 3 days ago when the stock dropped 3.1% after the U.S.-China summit concluded without any significant breakthroughs on semiconductor sales to the country. Expectations had been building for a potential deal, particularly regarding Washington's authorization for Nvidia to export i...
Ofcom’s incoming chair has vowed to take on the “tech bros”, as he conceded there was now a perception the regulator had been complacent and slow over concerns about online safety. Ian Cheshire, the former Channel 4 chair who has secured the job overseeing the technology and media regulator, also told MPs he had personal concerns about the impact of social media on under-16s. During a hearing befo...
Ofcom’s incoming chair has vowed to take on the “tech bros”, as he conceded there was now a perception the regulator had been complacent and slow over concerns about online safety. Ian Cheshire, the former Channel 4 chair who has secured the job overseeing the technology and media regulator, also told MPs he had personal concerns about the impact of social media on under-16s. During a hearing before the science, innovation and technology select committee, Cheshire was asked directly about whether he would take on the powerful tech companies that dominate the online world. “Yes,” he said, adding: “It is the area I want to probe and understand, because I think there is clearly a perception that it has been either complacent or slow or both.” However, he suggested Ofcom needed to be clear about what it could and could not achieve in terms of policing tech platforms. He said he wanted the platforms themselves to come together and demonstrate they wanted to do more. He said: “I think there are some questions about the practicality of what speed to do … because I think there are slightly more constraints. “If expectations are up here and the delivery is here, I think Ofcom has to take it on the chin to work out how to communicate that and say: ‘What’s the maximum we could do?’” While he said limiting social media for children was a matter for the government, he said: “I am personally – as a parent and grandparent – very nervous about social media under 16 personally, but I wouldn’t want to impose that as a political or an Ofcom view.” His comments were welcomed by safety campaigners. Andy Burrows, the chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said: “It’s refreshing to hear from Ian Cheshire that under his leadership, Ofcom will take on big tech and address the deserved perception the regulator is complacent and slow when it comes to enforcing the Online Safety Act. “It’s clear a reset is needed and redefining what Ofcom can effectively do on online safety will be a cr...
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Intel Corp CEO Lip-Bu Tan framed the company's turnaround around rebuilding data center leadership, winning foundry customers, and positioning Intel as a critical U.S. alternative to overseas chip manufacturing. Intel Targets Data Center Comeback Tan told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Tuesday that Intel onc...
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Intel Corp CEO Lip-Bu Tan framed the company's turnaround around rebuilding data center leadership, winning foundry customers, and positioning Intel as a critical U.S. alternative to overseas chip manufacturing. Intel Targets Data Center Comeback Tan told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Tuesday that Intel once led the data center market but lost that position after product and execution mistakes. He said he is simplifying Intel's roadmap, bringing engineering closer to customers, and rebuilding talent to restore competitiveness. Tan also said AI inference is increasing CPU demand as customers need more processors to manage orchestration, agents, and reinforcement learning. He noted that one customer wanted to triple its CPU forecast, but Intel needs several quarters to catch up. Don't Miss: Google, SambaNova And Customers Shape Strategy Tan described Alphabet Inc Google, as an important partner and said Intel wants to work with "winners" by helping customers succeed. He also highlighted Intel's partnership with SambaNova, saying Intel's XPU, combined with SambaNova's data-flow architecture, can deliver better performance and lower power consumption. Foundry And TSMC Rivalry Drive Value Tan called Intel's foundry business a strategic national asset because more than 90% of advanced processors are made outside the U.S. He said Intel improved 18A yields and is seeing monthly progress of 7% to 8%, helping attract outside customer interest. Tan declined to name Apple Inc but said multiple customers are working with Intel. Looking ahead, Tan said Intel's 14A process could reach risk production in 2028 and volume production in 2029, putting Intel on a timeline he believes can compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. Trending: Avoid the #1 Investing Mistake: How Your ‘Safe' Holdings Could Be Costing You Big Time Earnings & Analyst Outlook Looking further out, the ne...
Last year marked the beginning of Google's explicit focus on AI search, and this year's I/O solidified that shift . As Google's search VP Liz Reid said during the keynote, "Google search is AI search." This change is well underway, and the very reasonable objections to this path will not dissuade the company. All the metrics that matter to Google say this is the right move. But at the end of the d...
Last year marked the beginning of Google's explicit focus on AI search, and this year's I/O solidified that shift . As Google's search VP Liz Reid said during the keynote, "Google search is AI search." This change is well underway, and the very reasonable objections to this path will not dissuade the company. All the metrics that matter to Google say this is the right move. But at the end of the day, Google can get whatever outcome it wants because it's just that big and influential. Google started testing AI Mode for search just over a year ago, making the shift official at I/O 2025. You hear a lot of complaints around the Internet about how AI is changing Google's search products, but Google is getting what it wants: more searches. Reid revealed at I/O 2026 that AI Mode usage has been doubling every quarter. There are now more than 1 billion people using AI Mode every month. It's not hard to see how that could be true. AI Mode invites a conversational experience—it asks you questions—and each of those follow-up queries counts as searches. Google has also pushed AI Mode very hard, including prominent links and nudges to get people to use its search chatbot instead of the traditional product. And unlike many of Google's other AI experiences, you don't have to pay anything to AI search. Everyone who uses Google search gets the full AI experience. Read full article Comments
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Volvo once had ambitions to fully exit the gas car business. Now it’s trying to keep its tenuous foothold in the EV market. It’s not an understatement to say that Volvo’s EV journey has been a bumpy one. The compact EX40 has b...
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Volvo once had ambitions to fully exit the gas car business. Now it’s trying to keep its tenuous foothold in the EV market. It’s not an understatement to say that Volvo’s EV journey has been a bumpy one. The compact EX40 has been a consistent winner, but the Swedish brand’s other EVs have been plagued with problems. The EX90 was supposed to be a bold statement for the future, but persistent software bugs have forced Volvo into an expensive hardware replacement. The tiny EX30 faired no better, with tariffs upending the rollout of the brand’s first mass-market affordable EV, eventually leading to its discontinuation in the US. But now with the EX60 compact SUV, Volvo is hoping to get its EV groove back. Volvo’s top executives gathered in New York City this week to mark the new compact SUV’s US debut and to celebrate the opening of orders for customer deliveries later this summer. Starting at $59,795, the next-gen EX60 will be more expensive than the regular, gas-powered XC60 crossover, which has recently become Volvo’s top-selling model of all time. But it will be less expensive than the plug-in hybrid XC60, which says a lot given the popularity of hybrids these days. But the EX60 will arrive in what is arguably the most hostile environment for EVs since their inception, thanks to the elimination of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, policy changes, and tariffs making vehicles of all types more expensive. As EV sales grow globally, the American market is in an obvious slump. But Volvo thinks the EX60’s impressive traits — 400 miles of range, 10–80 percent fast-charging in 18 minutes, and a steady stream of OTA software updates — will be enough to beat back the headwinds. The Volvo EX60 bears with it all of the Swedish brand’s hopes for the future. Image: Volvo “Is this the right time to introduce a...
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images Originally published on May 18, 2026 We’ve all heard the lectures. Leverage caused the GFC. Leverage blew up Long-Term Capital Management in ’98. Leverage cratered Amaranth on a bad natural gas trade in ’06. The word itself carries decades of scar tissue, and for good reason. Pile enough of it onto a concentrated bet and you don’t just lose. You take a few ...
PM Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images Originally published on May 18, 2026 We’ve all heard the lectures. Leverage caused the GFC. Leverage blew up Long-Term Capital Management in ’98. Leverage cratered Amaranth on a bad natural gas trade in ’06. The word itself carries decades of scar tissue, and for good reason. Pile enough of it onto a concentrated bet and you don’t just lose. You take a few counterparties down with you. So here’s the honest question. If leverage is the villain in every cautionary tale, why have institutions been quietly using it for forty years to make portfolios safer ? Pensions, endowments, and sovereign funds didn’t suddenly forget LTCM. They just figured out something the rest of the industry kept fuzzy on. There’s a real difference between using leverage to amplify one bet and using leverage to add a diversifier on top of an existing one. Portable alpha. Capital efficiency. Overlay strategies. Different names, same idea. And for years it sat in a weird semantic gray zone, because to most retail platforms, a leveraged ETF was a leveraged ETF, full stop. Cue, Spider-Man. With great power comes great responsibility. Leverage absolutely is powerful. The question worth asking is whether the responsibility part is being handled, not whether the tool itself is forbidden. Morningstar Seems to Have Decided It’s Not Just Semantics Effective April 30, 2026, Morningstar renamed the old “Multi-Asset Leveraged” category to Multi-Asset Overlay. Small change on paper. Pretty meaningful in practice. The rationale, in their framing, is to distinguish funds that use derivatives or return stacking (layering alternatives on top of stocks and bonds) from the 2x and 3x daily leveraged crowd. These are, in Morningstar’s own description, strategic, long-term allocation funds focused on diversified, active absolute return approaches. If that return stacking phrase sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve covered the Return Stacked ETFs on this blog and the podcast mo...
Bezos Torches AOC, Says Billionaires "Earn Every Penny" Jeff Bezos sat down for a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning at a Blue Origin facility in Merritt Island, Florida - where he rattled off lots of thoughts, including how billionaires are made, slammed AOC, and opined on the relative impact of for-profit innovation versus charity, taxes, and bureaucratic inefficiency. On W...
Bezos Torches AOC, Says Billionaires "Earn Every Penny" Jeff Bezos sat down for a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning at a Blue Origin facility in Merritt Island, Florida - where he rattled off lots of thoughts, including how billionaires are made, slammed AOC, and opined on the relative impact of for-profit innovation versus charity, taxes, and bureaucratic inefficiency. On Wealth Creation and "Unearned" Billionaires Bezos directly responded to criticism from figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who has argued that accumulating $1 billion is inherently “unearned.” He rejected the notion with a straightforward analogy: “ Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you start a burger joint, and you have 10 employees, and you make a little bit of money … Until you have - this is just one outlet. And by the way, these are the most delicious burgers in the world. People love your burgers, Andrew. And so then you open a second outlet… and now you’re making a little bit more money, and you have 20 employees. And you open a third outlet. By the time you’ve opened a thousand outlets, you are a billionaire… This is a real life story. It happens all the time. It’s In-N-Out Burger, it’s Raising Cane’s Chicken… T he way you make a billion dollars, or a hundred million dollars, or 10 million dollars, or anything, is you create a service that people love . And if millions of people choose your service, you’re going to end up with a billion dollars… But your chicken has to be good.” Jeff Bezos explains to @AOC how billionaires are created: providing at least a billion dollars in value to society -- the opposite of exploitation. Bezos: "Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you start a burger joint, and you have 10 employees, and you make a little bit… pic.twitter.com/qGjGdoJcbr — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 20, 2026 For-Profit Companies vs. Charitable Giving Bezos argued that the societal impact of successful businesses far outweighs trad...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS Chief Executive Officer — Luis Raganato Chief Financial Officer — Mariano Tannenbaum TAKEAWAYS Total Revenue -- Grew approximately 13% to surpass $1.2 billion, reaching a first-quarter record despite soft consumption in some markets. -- Grew approximately 13% to surpass $1.2 billion, reaching a first-quarter ...
Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET CALL PARTICIPANTS Chief Executive Officer — Luis Raganato Chief Financial Officer — Mariano Tannenbaum TAKEAWAYS Total Revenue -- Grew approximately 13% to surpass $1.2 billion, reaching a first-quarter record despite soft consumption in some markets. -- Grew approximately 13% to surpass $1.2 billion, reaching a first-quarter record despite soft consumption in some markets. System-wide Comparable Sales -- Increased 16%, driven mainly by higher average check and improvements in guest traffic across multiple regions. -- Increased 16%, driven mainly by higher average check and improvements in guest traffic across multiple regions. Adjusted EBITDA -- Reported at $118 million, up almost 30% in U.S. dollars year over year, producing the highest first-quarter result in company history. -- Reported at $118 million, up almost 30% in U.S. dollars year over year, producing the highest first-quarter result in company history. Consolidated EBITDA Margin -- Expanded by 120 basis points, with Food and Paper, and G&A each contributing 60 basis points; expansion remained 70 basis points even excluding sub franchisee restaurant transactions. -- Expanded by 120 basis points, with Food and Paper, and G&A each contributing 60 basis points; expansion remained 70 basis points even excluding sub franchisee restaurant transactions. Brazil Division Performance -- Achieved more than 20% adjusted EBITDA growth with a 30-basis-point margin expansion to 12.7%, driven by food and paper cost reduction, less pressure from beef prices, and revenue management strategies. -- Achieved more than 20% adjusted EBITDA growth with a 30-basis-point margin expansion to 12.7%, driven by food and paper cost reduction, less pressure from beef prices, and revenue management strategies. SLAD Division -- Delivered strong U.S. dollar revenue growth and margin expansion; EBITDA margin rose by approximately 120 basis points excluding sub franchise...
Wall Street is racing to turn computing power into a tradable commodity with the first ETFs being filed even before the futures contracts they would track have started to trade. Roundhill Investments, the boutique firm behind the fastest-growing exchange-traded fund in history, has submitted paperwork with regulators for the Roundhill Compute ETF under the ticker GPUX. The actively managed ETF wou...
Wall Street is racing to turn computing power into a tradable commodity with the first ETFs being filed even before the futures contracts they would track have started to trade. Roundhill Investments, the boutique firm behind the fastest-growing exchange-traded fund in history, has submitted paperwork with regulators for the Roundhill Compute ETF under the ticker GPUX. The actively managed ETF would hold futures contracts pegged to the price of computing power. Per the prospectus, this includes cloud computing, high-performance computing and storage required to run calculations, process data and train artificial intelligence and machine-learning models. Last week, paperwork for the ProShares AI Computing Power ETF also landed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission . That fund would aim to track the market for AI computing power, primarily through investments in compute futures contracts tied to graphics processing units, or GPUs. Both filings arrive just days after an announcement by CME Group Inc. and the index provider Silicon Data teaming up to launch the compute futures market — built on the underlying capacity that powers AI training and inference in data centers. The project is pending regulatory review. Read more: CME to Create Futures Market for Computing Power Backing AI “There are a few gold rushes going right now in ETFs — and computing power is one of them,” said Eric Balchunas , senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence . “The issuers have learned to be avid readers and consumers of everything that’s coming out especially from the tech world so they can get ahead of the trend.” The moves extend a pattern that has come to define the current cycle in the ETF industry. The firm is the same one that turned its memory-chip ETF, DRAM , into the fastest-growing fund, reaching about $9.5 billion in assets over a handful of weeks. Its buyers include retail investors searching for a way to bet directly on the AI build-out. “Half the battle of thematic ...
JHVEPhoto GameStop ( GME ) boosted its economic stake in eBay ( EBAY ) to over 6.5% as CEO Ryan Cohen continues to pursue an acquisition despite having his offer rejected by the board. In response to eBay's ( EBAY ) rejection, Cohen has sharpened his public rhetoric, insisting that the e-commerce giant's directors should not dismiss a $125 per share offer without engaging and should instead let sh...
JHVEPhoto GameStop ( GME ) boosted its economic stake in eBay ( EBAY ) to over 6.5% as CEO Ryan Cohen continues to pursue an acquisition despite having his offer rejected by the board. In response to eBay's ( EBAY ) rejection, Cohen has sharpened his public rhetoric, insisting that the e-commerce giant's directors should not dismiss a $125 per share offer without engaging and should instead let shareholders evaluate the economics. He has also criticized eBay’s management and board, calling them a "group of losers" and attacking executive compensation, while hinting he could pursue a proxy fight or other measures to force eBay to the table. Wedbush Securities thinks the most likely outcome remains that eBay ( EBAY ) successfully resists the current proposal. However, analyst Michael Piccolo said continued stake accumulation does provide some real optionality because GameStop ( GME ) could launch a proxy fight for board seats at the next eBay ( EBAY ) annual meeting, and the overhang of a hostile bid may pressure the company to accelerate capital returns or operational improvements to defend its valuation. A third option is that another bidder steps up as a white knight with a solid offer for eBay ( EBAY ). Piccolo thinks the GameStop ( GME ) drama creates a share price floor near the current level. Shares of eBay ( EBAY ) pushed 3.5% higher in Wednesday afternoon trading and carved out a new 52-week high of $118.83. The market cap on eBay ( EBAY ) is now over $50B vs. the market cap of $9.9B for GameStop ( GME ). More on GameStop, eBay Wall Street Lunch: EBay Rejects GameStop Takeover Proposal eBay: GameStop Bid Doesn't Add Up GameStop's 'Crazy Idea' To Buy EBay Isn't So Crazy, But It Is Risky GameStop increases eBay economic exposure to 6.55% in amended filing GameStop's bid for eBay faces a credit rating headwind