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On June 7, GameStop posted an afternoon press release revealing that Executive Chairmen Ryan Cohen would now be calling the shots as CEO of the company.
“Mr. Cohen’s responsibilities include capital allocation and overseeing management. In conjunction, the Company’s former CEO has been terminated,” stated GameStop.
“Not for long,” said Cohen, in a similarly timed tweet.
Not for long
— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) June 7, 2023
The unnamed CEO who was let go refers to former Amazon executive Matthew Furlong, who had been in the top office for the past two years trying to turn GameStop around from recent struggles.
Cohen has been with the company since 2021 after finding success in the business world as an entrepreneur who founded the successful online pet food and pet-related product company Chewy (originally listed as Mr. Chewy) in 2011. Six years later, the company was acquired in the largest e-commerce business deal, at the time, for $3.35 billion by PetSmart. Cohen himself would stay on until 2018.
“My father always told me: ‘talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words.’ My responsibility is to make sure GameStop is run by managers who treat company money like their own. In corporate America, the people in charge, the professional directors and management teams, are not aligned with shareholders,” said Cohen, at GameStop’s annual shareholders meeting. “I like people who roll up their sleeves and do real work. People guided by principles. Not robots who seek to rest and invest.”
Cohen is certainly speaking with his actions, as well, after dropping $10 million on the company’s stock.
Of course, since the position change, GameStop has made news for other reasons as well. It has been reported that GameStop and Target had leaked the release date of October 17, 2023, the game Sonic Superstars via their website listing. As of June 24, it has been changed on the GameStop website to “TBD” and while Target has listed December 31, 2023.
Oscar nominee Paul Dano, known for films like There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine, 12 Years A Slave and more recently, The Batman, will star in the movie Dumb Money, inspired by GameStop’s 2021 stock short squeeze, which is slated to come out on September 22.
GameStop has been a struggling gaming retailer for a long time now. Cohen is giving a reason for gamers to at least tune into the company again to see what is next.
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