Ryan Cohen Takes CEO Role at GameStop With No Salary

GameStop has named activist investor and Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to the role of president and CEO on top of his existing position as chairman of the board of directors. Cohen, who is taking the reins at the company three months after CEO Matt Furlong was fired, will forgo a salary — but his new position will give him a large amount of leverage in terms of pushing his goals for the ailing retailer.

Cohen has been involved with operations at GameStop for over a year, most notably when he reportedly spearheaded the firing of CFO Mike Recupero in July 2022 on the grounds that he was “not the right culture fit” and “too hands off,” a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The move was made at the same time as layoffs due to the company “making a number of reductions to help us keep things simple and operate nimbly with the right talent in place,” according to an internal memo.

While GameStop has been struggling for some time, it seems to have stabilized in its latest quarter. Net sales were $1.164 billion for Q2 2023, compared to $1.136 billion for Q2 2022, and its net loss shrank to $2.8 million from $108.7 million during the same period in the previous year.

However, smaller losses are not growth, and GameStop has yet to prove that its business model makes sense in an increasingly digital world. The retailer has attempted to tap into modern online trends through moves such as the launch of an NFT marketplace in July 2022, but that gamble likely didn’t pay off. A recent study found that as many as 95% of NFTs are now effectively worthless, according to Business Insider.

While Cohen has not made any plans for GameStop public — the announcement of his appointment was two sentences long — his actions at other companies imply that he may push for a sale of GameStop’s more valuable assets or otherwise look to maximize value while shedding less profitable aspects.

Cohen was a vocal supporter of the sale of BuyBuy Baby after he took a 9.8% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond in March 2022. However, he sold his stake in August 2022 following a bump in stock prices created by the short-lived “meme stock” craze, a move that earned scrutiny from the SEC, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Additionally, Cohen reportedly took a large stake in Nordstrom in February 2023 in preparation of pushing cost cuts through a “targeted board refresh” at the luxury retailer, according to The Wall Street Journal. He is also using a significant stake in Alibaba to push for increased and sped-up share buybacks at the company, according to Reuters.