GameStop Announces Appointment Of New CEO

GameStop on Wednesday announced the appointment of Matt Furlong and Mike Recupero - both of who are former executives at Amazon- as its new CEO and chief financial officer.

The video-game retailer's stock sank about 12% in extended trading after it released a statement on this new leadership as well as its fiscal first-quarter results, which revealed the company's sales to be up 25%.

Matt Furlong, who is to resume as CEO on the 21st of June, has worked at Amazon for about nine years in several capacities, including heading the Australian business and serving as technical advisor to the head of the company's North America consumer business. Before these, he worked at Procter & Gamble.

Recupero, on the other hand, kicked off his career at Amazon 17 years ago. Most recently, he was the chief financial officer of its North American consumer business. Before that, he held similar roles within Amazon’s prime video, European consumer, and advertising units.

Over the last few months, the company has hired three former Amazon executives, Jenna Owens, Matt Francis, and Elliot Wilke, as its new chief operating officer; first chief technology officer; and chief growth officer, respectively. The company also hired co-founder Ryan Cohen, the co-founder of Chewy, to head its e-commerce efforts. Ryan Cohen was named chairman at a shareholder meeting Wednesday.

Cohen took a stake in GameStop last year. In January, he and two other former Chewy executives were named to the retailer’s board as part of an agreement with the company’s management.

GameStop announced earlier that its outgoing CEO, George Sherman would step down on or before the 31st of July, depending on how quickly it finds a successor.

The video game retailer is struggling to find a strategy and cultivate sales after its earlier stock boost in January. The company, which had been struggling before the Reddit-inspired stock boost, is trying to turn things around.

These new set of executives are saddled with the responsibility of transforming the company from an ordinary brick-and-mortar retailer into a force in the online space, capable of standing competitors such as Microsoft, Sony, or Walmart. It certainly has the popularity for it.

According to the company's earnings report, its net sales went up 25.1% to $1.277 billion from $1.021 billion in the first quarter of 2020. 

Its stock(GME) closed trading on Thursday on the NYSE at $220.39, 27.16% less than how much it sold for at the start of the day.

News that they may offer another 5 million shares and that past trading activity is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission sent the stock spiraling on the bourse.

This year alone, however, the stock has grown 1,500%.