Retail

Why GameStop Wants an Activist Investor to Head Its Board of Directors

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GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) takes the next step in its transformation as a company with a plan to nominate a new slate of individuals for its board of directors, including a new board chair who has been a vocal activist investor.

The GameStop transformation has been happening for a while now, and a new board chair seems to be the icing on the cake. Recently, the video game retailer capitalized on its massive gains with a secondary offering and even snagged a couple of top executives from Amazon.

In terms of this most recent development, GameStop nominated six individuals to stand for election to its board of directors at the annual stockholder meeting on June 9. The proposed directors include Alan Attal, Larry Cheng, Ryan Cohen, Jim Grube, George Sherman and Yang Xu. As it stands now, Cohen is set to take over the role as chairperson, and he has been one of the more vocal activist investors.

Note that Cohen only joined GameStop’s board of directors in January, but now he is looking to lead it come June.

The company also announced a couple of updates:

  • Following the Annual Meeting, all directors will be compensated 100% in equity;
  • Following the Annual Meeting, individual director compensation will be reduced approximately 28% from the prior year, and
  • Effective immediately, the Board has appointed Mr. Grube to serve on the Strategic Planning and Capital Allocation Committee.

Excluding Thursday’s move, GameStop stock had vastly outperformed the broad markets with a gain of about 844% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the share price was up closer to 5,660%.

GameStop stock traded around $179 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $3.49 to $483.00. The consensus price target is $40.64.

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