GameStop’s ‘Highly Confident’ $20 Billion TD Letter Echoes Drexel

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.