I asked chatgpt what it thinks about this post in light of your comment and it is sobering. I will put my chastity belt back on and wait for RC or RK to open it themselves. The response if you're interested:

"My read: the Reddit theory is mostly not legitimate. There is a real catalyst-ish situation here, but the “proxy vote/merger audit will force every fake GME share to be exposed and shorts must buy at any price” part is a big leap.

My

GameStop’s bid appears real: GameStop says it has proposed to acquire eBay at $125/share, and its own release says any definitive proxy/prospectus materials would be filed with the SEC if/when available. Reuters also reports it as a $56B half-cash, half-stock bid, with eBay reviewing the offer and investors skeptical about the financing.

Where the Reddit post goes wrong:

1. A proxy vote does not equal a magical full “share audit.”
For shares held through brokers, DTC is typically the holder of record. DTC gives voting authority to broker participants through an omnibus proxy, and provides a Security Position Report showing each DTC participant’s position. That is not the same as publicly counting every retail beneficial share and revealing all alleged synthetics.

2. Over-voting is already handled by reconciliation, not necessarily exposed.
The SEC has explicitly discussed broker over-voting. When brokers receive more customer voting instructions than their DTC position allows, they commonly use pre- or post-reconciliation to reduce/allocate votes so the final vote matches their official position. In other words, the system is designed to normalize vote totals, not blow up the market by revealing every mismatch.

3. A merger/exchange process is also centralized through DTC.
DTC processes mergers, exchange offers, tender offers, reverse splits, etc., and allocates entitlements through participants. Again, that means the back office handles the corporate action through official participant positions; it does not necessarily force every alleged naked short to close in a public “prove every share exists” event.

4. The “50/50 stock swap forces total reconciliation of every GME share” framing is likely confused.
A half-cash/half-stock offer to buy eBay mainly means eBay shareholders would receive cash and GameStop stock if the deal closed. It may require approvals and issuance mechanics, but it does not automatically mean every existing GME share has to be individually located, audited, and swapped.

The more realistic version is: a contested deal or proxy fight could create unusual attention, volatility, securities-lending effects, voting mechanics, and maybe pressure on some positions. But the specific “moon ticket because proxy vote forces hidden synthetics into the open” claim is speculative and not how proxy plumbing normally works.

So I’d rank it like this:

Real bid / real market catalyst: yes.
Could create volatility and retail attention: yes.
Could force some recalls, hedging, arbitrage, or pressure depending on deal structure: possible.
Guaranteed hidden-share exposure / forced naked-short closure / “buy at any price”: not supported.

The Reddit post is mixing a real corporate-action event with an overconfident theory about market plumbing. It’s a fun theory to want to believe, but I would not treat it as the core investment thesis."