GameStop fires its CEO
By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.
GameStop has fired CEO Matt Furlong, the company announced as part of its first quarter 2023 earnings on Wednesday. There’s no immediate replacement, though board chairman Ryan Cohen has been appointed executive chairman, the company said in a short press release about Furlong’s firing.
Cohen, who founded the e-commerce site Chewy, has invested in a number of “memestocks” including GameStop and Bed, Bath and Beyond. His surprise sale of Bed, Bath, and Beyond stock in 2022 raised eyebrows and led to at least one lawsuit accusing him of pumping and dumping the stock. His initial investment in GameStop back in early 2021 led to an enormous rise in the stock and contributed to its status as a memestock beloved by the Reddit sub r/wallstreetbets.
Matthew Furlong was fired on June 5th without cause, the company wrote in the 10-Q. Furlong started at GameStop in June 2021 — which was after the beginning of the chaos with GameStop’s stock price — and he oversaw things like the company’s move into NFTs, November layoffs, and firing the company’s CFO.
GameStop has also made Mark Robinson the company’s new “principal executive officer” with a title of general manager, according to a form 10-Q from the company. Robinson has been at GameStop for nearly eight years, according to his LinkedIn, and he most recently served as the company’s general counsel.
GameStop canceled its earnings call today.
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