This week on the Market Maker deals show, Anthony and Stephen break down the biggest corporate finance stories moving global markets. They unpack UniCredit’s hostile takeover battle for Commerzbank and why CEO Andrea Orcel is being labelled “The Shark” as European banking consolidation heats up again. They also dive into GameStop’s shocking $55bn bid for eBay, Ryan Cohen’s chaotic CNBC interview, and the mechanics behind meme-stock dealmaking. Finally, they explore how Eli Lilly became one of the world’s most valuable companies, why it just raised $9bn in bonds, and how pharmaceutical giants use acquisitions to defend their blockbuster drug pipelines. Whether you&#x27;re aiming for banking, asset management, accounting, private equity, or advisory, this is essential insight to stay ahead of the curve. (00:00) Intro &amp; Researcher Opportunity (03:04) UniCredit vs Commerzbank (18:50) GameStop’s $55BN Bid for eBay (32:18) Eli Lilly’s $9BN Bond Raise &amp; M&amp;A Strategy Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn Watch the CNBC interview with GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen

GameStop’s $55BN eBay Bid, Europe’s Banking War & Eli Lilly’s Trillion-Dollar

Market Maker

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Market Maker

## Participants

- **Anthony Cheung** (AmplifyME)
- **Stephen Barnett** (AmplifyME)

## Transcript

Welcome back to the Market Maker Podcast and we're going back to one of our most popular formats and that is the biggest M&A stories you need to know about this week. And this time, it's hostile folks. And so what have we got in the content mix for you this time? We've got three incredible stories, perhaps full of insight and intrigue, lots of learning. And as I said, fair bit of bare knuckle boardroom combat here. So first up, we've got Unicredit.

And Commerce Bank. The quote, I'm going to put this on the responsibility of my notes. The shark. Not my personal opinion. I can't say if I met Andrea Orsel, the CEO of Unicredit, but he does go by the nickname, the shark. And he's gone hostile to tie up in a European banking mega merger. We have briefly talked about this an episode a few months ago. It's just reignited this last few days.

The second story of the week is Ryan Cohen's GameStop launching an unsolicited $55-billion bid to acquire, yes folks, it still exists, eBay. And we'll discuss all things meme stock, reverse takeovers. And of course, you might have seen it. Stephen was just giving me his latest interpretation pre-recording of that CNBC interview, which I'm sure some of the GameStop fans would have seen.

And then finally, we're going to take a look at a trillion-dollar company you might not never have heard of. Eli Lilly, the company behind the wildly successful weight loss drug Mounjaro is issuing $8 billion of bonds for a diversification acquisition spree. So that's what's on the docket.

However, before we begin, we might have done a shout out a few times to a special guy, Sarp, who's been our phenomenal researcher for, well, about a year, I think. However, he has gone and secured an investment banking job. So very well done for Sarp. And that means that we are now looking for a new researcher.

The commitments we have are very much kind of open-ended in the sense of we have this one regular feature every week. But we would love to really give the opportunity to someone out there like with Sarp. He just did this pro bono so he could learn, so we could give him our platform to raise his own profile. And thankfully, through his own means and with us, he's landed the job that he aspired to be in. So hopefully, we can give that opportunity to someone else.

So if you're interested in becoming our new researcher for the show, specifically on the M&A segment, then all you need to do, find me on LinkedIn, drop me a DM. And why don't you pitch me a stock? Research one. You don't have to do three like we're doing here, just one. And then Stephen and I can hopefully give that opportunity to someone out there going forward.

All right. Let's get into it then, Stephen. This latest development then, a European banking mega merger. What's the latest?

Yeah, thank you, Ant. So yeah, so this is Unicred...

GameStop’s $55BN eBay Bid, Europe’s Banking War & Eli Lilly’s Trillion-Dollar

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

GameStop’s $55BN eBay Bid, Europe’s Banking War & Eli Lilly’s Trillion-Dollar

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.