Bloomberg: A Billionaire Entrepreneur with a Midas Touch

Posted on by Joe Fonicello

This morning, Olga Kharif  and Anders Melin of Bloomberg have published an article that details Ryan Cohen‘s past success with Chewy and the talent he, along with his team, bring to GameStop.

The article mentions how Cohen, who takes over as chairman in June, has brought in several of his old Chewy cohorts to help execute his plan, including the mastermind of the customer-service program, Kelli Durkin.

Cohen’s goal is to push the company rapidly into e-commerce, and according to people familiar with his thinking, he plans to borrow heavily from the model he implemented at Chewy to pull off that transition.

The piece also mentions Cohen’s personal background, regarding his lack of a college education and the path of his father inspiring his demeanor.

Cohen, who was born in Montreal, never went to college. He has credited much of his success building Chewy to his father, who ran a glassware business and died in 2019. In person, Cohen has a soft-spoken demeanor, revealing little of his shrewd business instincts and ability to drive bargains with suppliers, former colleagues say.

Kharif and Melin also delve into Cohen’s mischievous Twitter usage, something we have spent hours speculating on.

Cohen has embraced the mischievous spirit of Elon Musk as he pursues a GameStop comeback. Like Tesla Inc. ’s prankster-king, he posts goofy and sometimes mysterious images on social media (a poop emoji over a picture of a Blockbuster store or the stuffed bear from the movie “Ted” using a bong ). That’s helped him win over the Reddit crowd, which turned GameStop into a so-called meme stock.

While none of this is news to GMEdd readers, it is bullish to see the press picking up on the real story behind the  GameStop investment thesis.

Check out the article to read more

Source: Bloomberg

Ryan Cohen Tweets Incoming Train Warning

Posted on by Joe Fonicello

Seems like it was just yesterday that Ryan Cohen, GameStop’s incoming Chairman, last tweeted. Oh, that’s because it was.

At 9:02 PM on April 25th, Ryan Cohen has shared a gif from South Park where a character named Ryan “Tim Tebows” on train tracks while his friends shout, warning him of an incoming train.

Joe Fonicello of GMEdd was fast to track down the scene behind this gif, which is from Season 16 Episode 3.

In the episode, a memetic trend emerges called “Faith Hilling”, a derivative of planking. After the boys perform this prank on stage at a 2012 Colorado Republican Presidential Debate, the entire fourth grade class of South Park Elementary is required to take a safety education class in which they are taught the dangers of memetic trends with a graphic educational video showing people dying gruesome deaths when they are hit by trains while “Tebowing”.

Ryan Cohen could be using this clip as a nod to the shorts who had more than enough time to react to RC’s GameStop takeover. 

The train was coming, all they had to do was stop ignoring the warnings and look for it and turn around.

Source: Ryan Cohen on Twitter

Ryan Cohen Tweets Flag at Half Mast

Posted on by Joe Fonicello

Ryan Cohen has tweeted an American flag at half mast, a patriotic symbol of respect for the fallen.

The organization halfstaff.org states that the Americans should fly the United States Flag at Half-Staff immediately in Honor of Former Vice President Walter Frederick Mondale. Vice President Mondale served under President Jimmy Carter from 1977–1981.

The incoming GameStop chairman could also be referencing the Indonesian submarine that sunk, leaving 53 sailors presumed dead earlier today.

Tineye.com’s reverse image search did not return any prior results for this photo on the internet, so it is possible that Ryan Cohen took it himself.

Some GameStop investors also speculate that the half staff flag could symbolize GameStop’s former board being left behind for the new transformation team, as proxy voting has just began.

Source: Ryan Cohen on Twitter

GameStop Releases 2021 Proxy Statement

Posted on by Joe Fonicello

GameStop has released their anticipated 2021 Proxy Statement, revealing several noteworthy insights into the company’s strategic imperatives, the annual meeting, and voting.

GameStop has announced that for the June 9th, 2021 annual meeting, stockholders will be voting on:

  1. To elect the six nominees identified in the Proxy Statement (Sherman, Attal, Cheng, Cohen, Grube, and Xu) to serve as directors.
  2. To approve, on an advisory, non-binding basis, the executive compensation
  3. To ratify the Audit Committee’s appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for our fiscal year ending January 29, 2022

In GameStop’s April 5th filing, the company revealed that shares of company stock outstanding immediately after this offering is based on 70,031,650 shares as of April 1st. 

As of the Schedule 14-A filing, GameStop states that 70,771,778 shares of common stock are issued, outstanding and entitled to vote. This indicates that the company has begun deploying their Up-To-$1B offering.

Revealed through Corporate Governance Highlights, GameStop states that the Chair of the Board shall be independent, indicating that Ryan Cohen may not be considered for CEO.

GameStop also announced that the company’s Chief Executive Officer is required to hold common stock equivalent to 5 times base salary, and the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice Presidents are required to hold common stock equivalent to 3 times base salary. Alongside this, non-employee directors are required to hold common stock equivalent to $275,000.

The letter also indicates some of Ryan Cohen’s incoming jobs as chairman of GameStop, including but not limited to,

  • Presides at meetings of the Board and meetings of stockholders
  • Has authority to establish the agenda for each Board meeting; 
  • Serves as the presiding director to lead executive sessions at each meeting of the Board in which only independent directors participate; 
  • Has authority to call special meetings of the Board and special meetings of stockholders;
  • Advises the Chief Executive Officer and other members of our executive team on such matters as strategic direction, corporate governance and overall risk assessment.

GameStop also touched on their claw-back policy, indicating that the company is permitted to “recoup certain compensation payments in the event of a significant restatement of our financial results.”

Rod Alzmann of GMEdd.com has noted that he found the disclosed 17 board meetings in fiscal 2020 impressive.

Source: GameStop Schedule 14-A

CEO Sherman Issues Letter to Stockholders

Posted on by Joe Fonicello

In GameStop Corp.’s April 22nd’s Schedule 14A filing, George Sherman issued a letter to GameStop shareholders, likely his last as CEO of the gaming company.

Thank you for your investment in GameStop. It is my privilege to serve as GameStop’s chief executive officer, working with a group of highly-committed and knowledgeable Board members in stewardship of the long-term interests of all our stockholders.

Sherman takes the opportunity to remind GameStop shareholders of the strategic initiatives in place to support the goal of creating a customer-obsessed technology company that delights gamers.

  1. Investing in technology capabilities

    Including our E-Commerce presence, systems and customer insights gathering.

  2. Building a superior customer experience

    Including by establishing a U.S.-based customer care operation.

  3. Expanding our product catalogue and addressable market

    Certain emerging categories represent natural extensions that we believe our customers expect from us.

  4. Growing our distribution footprint fulfillment operations

    To improve speed of delivery and service. This will enable us to provide customers convenient, flexible, and competitive delivery options across the entire product spectrum.

The soon-departing CEO wraps up the letter with by thanking shareholders for their appreciation towards the newly-refreshed board, all thanks to Ryan Cohen.

As your fiduciaries, GameStop’s Board remains committed to enhancing value for our stockholders. We appreciate your support of management and the newly refreshed Board as they work to continue to create value for all stockholders.

Source: GameStop Schedule 14A

Ryan Cohen Tweets Bear Jerking Off

Posted on by Joe Fonicello

Ryan Cohen has tweeted once again. 

This time, it’s a gif of the bear from Ted seemingly enjoying himself, but then surprisingly turning around to share with us he’s shaking up a martini.

At this point, we’re not even sure if Ryan’s trying to send us all a cryptic message, or he’s just dicking around.

Some speculate that it could symbolize bearish investors “jerking off” to GME falling for years, while shorting. Then GME turns around (transforms) and pours a drink to celebrate.

The bear celebrating could also indicate that Ryan Cohen has good news from within the GameStop management executive shake-up.

GameStop has also filed a Form 4 with the SEC today for George Sherman’s forfeiture of 2020 performance-vested restricted stock award, as agreed upon in the Transition and Separation Agreement, between GameStop Corp. and George E. Sherman

Could this be the 4/20 surprise some were anticipating?

Click here for the video, in case Ryan Cohen removes it.

Source: Ryan Cohen on Twitter

GameStop Announces Ryan Cohen in Charge of New CEO Search

Posted on by Joe Fonicello

On April 19th, 2021, GameStop issued a News Release and a more detailed Form 8-K to announce the official Chief Executive Officer Succession Plan.  George Sherman will be stepping down as Chief Executive Officer on July 31, 2021, or earlier upon the appointment of a successor.

The Board of Directors thanked Mr. Sherman for his significant contributions since being appointed Chief Executive Officer in April 2019.   

Most interesting of all, the GameStop board’s Strategic Planning and Capital Allocation Committee is leading the search to identify Chief Executive Officer candidates with the capabilities and experience to help accelerate the next phase of the Company’s transformation.

Who is at the head of this committee? Ryan Cohen. Other members include ex-Chewy executives Alan Attal and Jim Grube, whom Ryan Cohen chose as his board seats granted through the RC Ventures Agreement (Kurt Wolf of Hestia Capital was formerly on this committee, but parted ways with GameStop in early April).

Subject to Mr. Sherman’s reelection at the Company’s 2021 annual meeting of stockholders, he has agreed to continue to serve as a director of the Company. Following Ryan Cohen’s initiative, Mr. Sherman has declined to receive compensation for his service as a director, both before and after the Separation Date.

In the News Release, Ryan Cohen, incoming Chairman of the Board, commented,

GameStop appreciates the valuable leadership that George has provided throughout his tenure. He took many decisive steps to stabilize the business during challenging times. The Company is much stronger today than when he joined. On a personal note, I also want to thank George for forming important partnerships with the new directors and executives who have joined GameStop in recent months.

The Form 8-K also touches on George Sherman voluntarily agreeing to the elimination of all other severance rights provided in his employment agreement and has also agreed to cancel his 2020 performance-vested restricted stock award, which consisted of 308,477 shares of common stock.

George Sherman also provided departing remarks,

I am very proud of what we have accomplished at GameStop over the past two years, including during the difficult COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a privilege to lead so many dedicated, talented individuals, who collectively possess tremendous passion for the gaming industry. We have helped bring stability and strength to the business, including by de-densifying our store footprint, reducing costs and debt, and driving e-commerce growth. I also want to take this opportunity to thank our Board for all of its collaboration and support.

Source: GameStop Form 8-K , News Release

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