- Ryan Cohen has been appointed CEO, President and Chairman of the Company and will not receive compensation for his work.
- The move comes more than three months after GameStop fired then-CEO Matthew Furlong.
- Shares of GameStop rose after the announcement.
GameStop announced Thursday morning that billionaire activist investor Ryan Cohen will take over as chief executive, chairman and president of the video game retailer effective immediately — and he won’t be taking a salary.
Shares of the company rose nearly 8% in premarket trading following the announcement.
GameStop’s board, with Cohen abstaining, voted unanimously on Wednesday to appoint the entrepreneur as the retailer’s top executive. Cohen previously served as executive chairman, but will step down after his latest appointment, according to a securities filing.
A press release said Cohen “will not receive any compensation” for his work.
The move comes more than three months after GameStop fired CEO Matthew Furlong, made Cohen executive chairman and appointed longtime company veteran Mark Robinson as its “chief executive officer” and general manager. GameStop didn’t give a reason for Furlong’s firing at the time, but it came months after the company posted its first quarterly profit in two years under Furlong at the helm.
Several weeks later, the company announced the resignation of CFO Diana Sathe-Jaje.
GameStop President Ryan Cohen.
Source: CNBC
With the latest move, Cohen will also assume the role of chief executive officer of Robinson. Robinson previously served as general counsel and secretary, and he added chief operating officer to his list of duties in June. Now, papers have been filed that he will continue as general counsel and secretary.
Cohen, who founded pet food retailer Chevy and is known as the “king” of meme stocks, bought a stake in GameStop in 2020 and joined the board in 2021 — at the height of the meme phenomenon.
As of the end of June, his company RC Ventures was GameStop’s largest shareholder with a 12.09% stake, according to FactSet.
Since Cohen joined the company, business hasn’t shown many signs of turning around, with a few exceptions. Earlier this month, GameStop announced it Second Quarter Financial ResultsPosting a narrower loss than a year ago, as well as a slight increase in revenue.
