Image: Screenshot, April 8, 2021. Source: gamestop.com

GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME plans to elect activist investor Ryan Cohen as its board chairman, the company announced Thursday. 

After investing in GameStop last year, Cohen, the billionaire co-founder and former chief executive officer of online pet product seller Chewy Inc, joined the video game retailer’s board in January and has been pushing for a shift in the company’s business model to one based on e-commerce.

The involvement of Cohen, who is also manager of activist investor RC Ventures, with GameStop helped spark the stock’s wild ride earlier this year during a trading frenzy fueled by online rookie traders, CNBC noted.

Cohen will be replacing Kurtis Wolf, who stepped down as chair on April 5. His resignation, GameStop said, was “not the result of any disagreement with the company or board.” 

On Thursday, the company also announced it was nominating six people, including Cohen, to stand for election to its board at its annual stockholders meeting on June 9.

The nominations include Larry Cheng, co-founder and managing partner of investment firm Volition Capital, and Yang Xu, senior vice president of global finance and treasury at The Kraft Heinz Co (Nasdaq: KHC ).

GameStop is also nominating current board member Alan Attal and chief executive officer and board member George Sherman.

The transition is part of a broader shake-up taking place at GameStop, with the company bringing in several executives from Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ), Chewy Inc (NYSE: CHWY ), Amazon.com Inc (Nasdaq: AMZN ) and Qurate Retail Inc’s (Nasdaq: QRTEA ) QVC for top positions, CNBC reported.

Earlier this year, GameStop’s chief merchandising officer Chris Homeister and chief financial officer Jim Bell both resigned, and the company is searching for their successors.

Thursday’s announcement comes a few days after GameStop increased the amount of new stock it may sell from $100 million to $1 billion in an attempt to capitalize on a surge in its shares from the Reddit-driven rally earlier this year. 

The Texas-based chain said it would sell up to 3.5 million shares in order to hasten its e-commerce shift and to strengthen its balance sheet. 

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Source: Equities News

Mentioned in this Article
Chewy Inc - Class A
Qurate Retail Inc - Series A
Kraft Heinz Co
Gamestop Corporation - Class A
Amazon.com Inc.
Walmart Inc