GameStop Ousts CEO, Posts Bigger-Than Expected Quarterly Loss
Ryan Cohen, the billionaire investor whose bold bet on GameStop made him a hero to meme stock traders, took over as executive chairman on Wednesday after the video game retailer ousted its CEO and posted a bigger-than expected quarterly loss.
Investors pushed the stock price down more than 20 percent in after-hours trading, continuing a roller-coaster ride that started in early 2021 when retail investors piled in to prove hedge funds betting on GameStop's demise wrong.
Some analysts are questioning whether Cohen can turn GameStop around, two years after he became board chairman. The new executive function to his previous role gives him control over capital allocation, evaluating potential investments and acquisitions, and overseeing the managers of the company's holdings, GameStop said in a regulatory filing.
CEO Matt Furlong's firing came almost exactly two years after GameStop brought the former Amazon.com executive back to the United States from Australia where he was working.
GameStop did not say why Furlong was terminated nor whether it planned to replace him, and did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Cohen and his representative also did not respond to requests for comment.
In the regulatory filing, the company said Furlong was fired as CEO on Monday, the same day he resigned from the board. GameStop added that his board resignation "did not result from any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company's operations, policies or practices."
GameStop said in the filing that Furlong would receive any remaining payments and benefits he was entitled to under his CEO contract subject to him waiving any claims against the company in a “timely” fashion.
In an apparent word play, Cohen
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