GameStop today announced that it has filed a supplement with the U.S. SEC in order to offer and sell up to a maximum of 3,500,000 shares of its common stock from time to time through an “at-the-market” equity offering program.

GameStop states that the company intends to use the proceeds from any sales of its Common Stock under the ATM Offering to further accelerate its transformation as well as for general corporate purposes and further strengthening its balance sheet.

The news release goes on to state that the timing and amount of any sales will be determined “by a variety of factors” considered by the Company.

Stock will be offered on the open market through Jefferies LLC which is serving as the sales agent. Sales may be made at prevailing market prices at the time, so as a result, sales prices may vary.

While this ATM offering dilutes existing shareholders, it is long-term bullish for the stock. 3,500,000 shares represents about 5.0% of the 69.9 million shares outstanding as of March 17. 

For the shelf offering to reach a full $1B, GameStop would sell the 3.5M shares at $285.71/share. If sold at the April 5th, 2021 open price of $171, GameStop would only be able to raise $598,500,000.

 Source: GameStop Form 424B5

In this Benzinga Power Hour clip from Thursday, April 1st, leading GameStop analyst and GMEdd.com Co-Proprietor  Rod Alzmann discusses his current life in the theta-gang. After sharing his thoughts on selling cash-secured puts on $GME, Rod explains how his projections are even higher than before, justified by GameStop’s latest corporate developments including recent Amazon and Chewy hires.

Rod and Luke also reflect on the insane premiums traders face in the $GME options chain.

Source: Benzinga on YouTube

The executive overhaul continues as revealed today in a SEC Form 8-K Filing, GameStop’s Chief Merchandising Officer has notified the company of his intent to resign.

Chris R. Homeister had served as Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer for GameStop, a role he was appointed to in June of 2019.

As Chief Merchandising Officer, Chris was responsible for GameStop’s overall merchandise operations and strategy and all product and visual merchandising functions, including buying, planning, supply chain and logistics, and inventory control efforts.

Prior to joining GameStop, Chris served as President, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of The Tile Shop, a publicly traded specialty retailer, where he grew the company in terms of product assortment, online and mobile capabilities, store count, employees, revenue and EBITDA.

Earlier in his career, Chris held a number of senior roles at Best Buy, including SVP, Digital Merchandising & Strategic Planning and General Manager and SVP, Entertainment Business Group, where he oversaw the product categories including video games, movies, music, and eReaders and launched Best Buys’ video game trade-in business.

Chris cited diminished responsibilities as the reason for requesting resignation. His employment will be terminated during Q2 2021.

Source: GameStop Corp. SEC Filing

Jim Cramer, Host of CNBC’s Mad Money, still can’t stop ranting and raving about GameStop. It would be absolutely mad to try and cover all of his tweets about the company and Ryan Cohen, some of which are incoherent, so we are just highlighting the most notable.

Gamestop putting together a dream team.. Really impressive.. They must have a plan that is not what we see now

This tweet was penned in a reaction to GameStop appointing a new Chief Growth Officer from Amazon, and two more VPs from Ryan Cohen’s Chewy.

While we are uncertain how deep Cramer has looked into GameStop, he is undoubtedly fascinated by the transformation effort frenzy and holds a powerful influence in the financial world. Cramer is finally seeing what we’ve seen for months.

GMEdd.com has extended an invite to Cramer to discuss GameStop amongst like-minded traders, but Cramer has not yet responded.

Source: Jim Cramer on Twitter

In a slew of seemingly daily website updates, GameStop has begun the transition of their famous trade-in program to online.

Seen promoted on the GameStop.com homepage, customers can now purchase new games online and exchange the previous-gen version for a credit towards the next-generation copy on select games.

Unfortunately, it looks like customers currently have to trade-in their games to a local GameStop retail store, which just about defeats the purpose unless the game you are purchasing is out of stock at the physical store. 

Customers are also only able to trade-in towards the newer version of the same game they already owned in the previous generation, which is not all-encompassing like the brick-and-mortar experience, where customers can trade in their games towards anything they desire.

This is just the beginning of the digital-facing trade-in program, and we anticipate a future where customers will be provided shipping labels courtesy of GameStop, and rewarded credit towards the entire site. 

Check it out at GameStop.com now.

Source: GameStop.com

In a repetition of news that seems to be almost every week, the transformation team has hired more former Amazon and Chewy executives.

Elliott Wilke has been appointed to the role of Chief Growth Officer. 

Mr. Wilke brings nearly two decades of branding, consumer goods and e-commerce experience to GameStop. He joins from Amazon, where he spent the past seven years holding a variety of senior roles across segments such as Amazon Fresh, Prime Pantry and Worldwide Private Brands. He began his career at Proctor & Gamble and spent more than a decade in brand manager and marketing roles of increasing responsibility. At GameStop, Mr. Wilke will oversee growth strategies and marketing, with a focus on increasing customer loyalty and growing the reach of Power Up Rewards and Game Informer. He will also work with other leaders on initiatives that include expanding the Company’s use of customer insights and metrics to optimize channel marketing.    

Additionally, the Company made two other executive hires:

  • Andrea Wolfe, Vice President of Brand Development – Ms. Wolfe, who previously served as Chewy’s Vice President of Marketing, started March 29, 2021. She has held executive and director-level marketing roles at companies such as Outdoorsy, Spreetrail and Whole Foods. In her new role, Ms. Wolfe will help drive branding, content, social media strategy and other digital initiatives.
  • Tom Petersen, Vice President of Merchandising – Mr. Petersen, who previously served as Chewy’s Vice President of Merchandising, started March 29, 2021. He has also held senior marketing and merchandising roles at specialty retailers such as Artenza and Corro. In his new role, Mr. Petersen will help drive vendor relations, product management and related merchandising initiatives.

Yesterday, we said that it was possible Ryan Cohen would give these analysts something to chirp about in their discussion today, and it appears he followed through. We’re glad to see GameStop attracting talent that is leagues better than the legacy management.

Source: GameStop Newsroom

Revealed via Bloomberg terminal, Third Bridge Forum will be hosting the interview ‘GameStop — E-Commerce Transformation & Structural Business Overview’ tomorrow, March 30th, at 3PM ET.

The agenda reveals the discussion will focus around:

  • Key competitive dynamics in the video game retail industry — GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target
  • Revenue analysis of GameStop’s existing business segments — new, pre-owned and accessories
  • Digital transformation efforts — online sales and penetration growth methods
  • Foot traffic recovery trends post-pandemic
  • Near-term risks highlighting public image and longer-term outlook.

This event will serve as a discussion for analysts to share their thoughts on GameStop’s existing and developing retail experience alongside the greater video game retail industry. The spread of fear, uncertainty and doubt from some is inevitable. It is unknown whether or not an official from GameStop will be present, but it would be unprecedented.

When Gamestop announced their strategic multi-year partnership with Microsoft on October 8th 2020, the relevant Third Bridge Forum interview was not until October 21st, 2 weeks later. Knowing this, we can assume they will be discussing information that we already know, likely analyzing the most recent 10-K filing. 

Constructive chatter amongst Wall Street about the future of GameStop is always welcome, and we look forward to hearing what viewpoints are shared.

Maybe Ryan Cohen will drop some news pre-market so they have something to chirp about. 

Source: Third Bridge


April 7th 2021 Editorial Update: GMEdd has obtained a copy of the Third Bridge Interview transcript, and it is now available here.