GameStop’s ‘Highly Confident’ TD Letter Echoes Drexel Era (1)

GameStop Corp.’s audacious $56 billion bid for eBay Inc. is relying on a tactic made famous by the corporate raiders of the 1980s to help prove it has the means to carry out the deal — if not the cash in hand.

The gaming retailer led by Canadian billionaire Ryan Cohen said it obtained a “highly confident letter” from Toronto-based TD Bank to provide about $20 billion in debt financing for the takeover. The move is meant to provide loose assurance that GameStop’s proposal has backing, though the letter isn’t legally binding.

“You’re expanding the art of the possible,” ...