Shares of GameStop Corp. GME,
shot up 10.2% in pre-trading on Monday, after the video game retailer announced an agreement with activist investor RC Ventures LLC that includes adding three members to the board immediately. One of the new board members is Ryan Cohen, who is the manager of RC Ventures, which according to FactSet’s data is GameStop’s second largest shareholder, with 13.8% of the outstanding shares. Cohen was also founded and was previously the CEO of Chewy Inc. CHWY,
“We appreciate the constructive dialogue we’ve had with Ryan over the past few months,” said GameStop CEO George Sherman. “Together, we have achieved an outcome that is in the best interests of all shareholders and that can enable GameStop to accelerate efforts to deliver value to the company.” Separately, GameStop said sales of the same stores for the 9-week holiday period ending Jan. 2 rose 4.8% year-on-year. Net sales for the period decreased 3.1% to $ 1.77 billion as strong demand for game consoles was offset by store closures, while e-commerce sales increased by 309% and about 34% of the total sales represented. The stock has risen 47.2% over the past three months to Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX,
achieved 10.0%.
