A man speaks on the phone in front of the GameStop on 6th Avenue on February 25, 2021 in New York.
John Smith | Corbis News | Getty Images
GameStop’s shares jumped 11% in pre-market trading after the company announced on Monday that it had hired Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to lead its move to e-commerce.
Cohen is serving as chairman of a special committee formed by the GameStop board to assist in his transformation. Board members Alan Attal, a former chief operating officer at Chewy, and Kurt Wolf, chief investment officer at Hestia Capital Management, also serve on the committee.
Cohen invested in GameStop last year to get the company to focus on online sales and abandon physical stores. His involvement with the company helped trigger the wild stock race earlier this year. GameStop’s shares have risen more than 700% so far in 2021, giving the company a market value of $ 10.6 billion.
The committee has already appointed a technology technology director, hired two executives to lead customer service and e-commerce service, and has started looking for a new financial director with experience in technology or e-commerce. GameStop previously announced that current CFO Jim Bell will step down on March 26. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Business Insider reported that Bell was removed by Cohen.
The new committee also appointed Attal as chairman of the board’s nominating and corporate governance committee and Wolf as chairman of the board’s compensation committee.
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