GameStop delves into Amazon’s executive sites to get a new CEO

GameStop, the video game retailer that tries to delve into it digital salts era, appointed new chief executive and chief financial officer who has worked at Amazon, continuing his foray into the executive ranks of the e-commerce group.

The company, whose shares have been at the center of a social media-traded business craze, said Wednesday that Matt Furlong would lead the company starting this month.

Furlong previously oversaw Amazon’s Australian business and was technical advisor to the head of the U.S. consumer business of the e-commerce company.

GameStop also appointed Mike Recupero, a 17-year veteran of Amazon, to be its chief financial officer.

The Texas-based retailer had announced in April that current Chief George Sherman would do so step down in late July, part of a wider shake-up aimed at accelerating its push towards e-commerce and reversing a decline in sales years ago.

Ryan Cohen, GameStop’s largest shareholder and co-founder of Chewy.com, was elected president of the company on Wednesday, after being approved to lead his digital efforts.

Cohen’s arrival on the board in January helped spark excitement among day traders who took stocks to historic highs.

Earlier this year, GameStop named several executives who had spent time at Amazon. Jenna Owens, a former executive at Amazon and Google, was named its chief operating officer. He also led Matt Francis as first head of technology and Elliott Wilke as head of growth.

GameStop shares rose 1,500% so far this year at the close of Wednesday, as the meme stock craze returned in recent weeks, after falling from its apparent high in January and February.

However, shares fell 12% in out-of-hours trading. Along with the appointments, the company revealed that it had received a request for documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission related to an “investigation of the trading activity of our securities and the securities of other companies”.

He said he intends to cooperate fully with the SEC and does not expect the investigation to negatively affect the company.

In another regulatory document, he added: “We have not experienced any significant change in our financial situation or in the results of operations that explain this price volatility or trading volume. [during the stock rally this year]”.

GameStop took advantage of the excitement for its shares in April by raising $ 551 million by selling $ 3.5 million in shares to help fund its e-commerce boost.

He announced on Wednesday a new “on the market” offer of up to 5 million shares, and said he would use some of the revenue again to invest in growth initiatives.

GameStop is the second meme stock that has taken advantage of capital markets in recent days. The AMC film chain has also charged the last period planned in its share price, announcing two sale of shares last week.

GameStop’s announcements on Wednesday also included its latest quarterly results, showing that net sales rose 25% year-on-year to $ 1.282 billion in the three months to early May. The jump reflected how last year’s quarter was hit by store closures due to the coronavirus pandemic. GameStop posted a quarterly loss of $ 66.8 million, compared to a loss of $ 165.7 million a year ago.

The company said the current quarter’s trends “continue to reflect momentum,” as May sales rose about 27% from last year.

Cohen said the company would avoid setting details of its route plan yet, but told shareholders to “fix it.”

“We have a lot of work ahead of us and it will take time,” he said, according to a transcript of his statements posted on Reddit. “We try to do something that no one in the business has ever done, but we believe we are putting the right pieces in place and we have clear goals: to delight customers and foster long-term shareholder value.”