GameStop Sells 5 Million Shares For General Corporate Purposes
On June 22, 2021, GameStop’s newsletter reported that the company completed its “at-the-market” equity offering program started in April, raising over $1.1 billion to balance out the shortage caused by artificial stock inflation.
The company began the ATM Offering in response to the stock inflation encouraged by Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, “Gamestop Can’t Stop Won’t Stop,” where an anonymous post shared an impressive return from GameStop’s stock. The comment section was filled with love, hate, jealousy and hope, as anything about stocks should be. However, this little show-off drove investors to push stock prices higher and squeeze out short-selling hedge funds, forcing GameStop to rearrange its marketing strategy.
In April, GameStop sold 3.5 million additional shares and raised $551 million, and in the second stock sale, the company sold 5 million shares, accumulating a total of 1.6 billion through two ATM Offering Programs.
After the company announced its completion of the equity-offering program, the stock has leaped as much as 12.7%, and by the afternoon, the daily gain was 10%.
GameStop also reset its leadership team with Matt Furlong as Chief Executive Officer and Mike Recupero as Chief Financial Officer, both of whom were originally from Amazon. Furlong is a veteran e-commerce leader who has implemented many successful growth strategies in various Amazon departments, while Recupero has recently worked as Chief Financial Officer of the North American Consumer business supporting growth across global geographies and product categories.
The new board reflects the company’s intention to focus on growing as a technology company and investing in growth.