GameStop Corp shares. GME,
shot up 10.2% in pre-market trading on Monday after the video game retailer announced a deal with activist investor RC Ventures LLC that includes the immediate addition of three members to its board of directors. One of the new board members is Ryan Cohen, who is the manager of RC Ventures, which is GameStop’s second largest shareholder with 13.8% of the shares outstanding, according to data from FactSet. Cohen was also founded and was previously the CEO of Chewy Inc. CHWY,
“We appreciate the constructive dialogue we have had with Ryan over the past few months,” said GameStop Chief Executive George Sherman. “Together, we achieve a result that is in the best interest of all shareholders and can allow GameStop to accelerate efforts to provide greater value to the company.” Separately, GameStop said same-store sales for the 9-week vacation period ending January 2 increased 4.8% from the previous year. Net sales in the period fell 3.1% to $ 1.77 billion, as strong demand for game consoles was offset by store closures, while e-commerce sales soared 309% to represent around 34% of total sales. The stock soared 47.2% in the last three months through Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX,
gained 10.0%.
