The company also said on Thursday that following the annual meeting, all directors on the board will be paid fully in shares – which will likely motivate them to take action to raise the price further. Directors will also see their compensation reduced by almost 30% compared to the previous year.
GameStop shares rose nearly 850% in 2021 – but are currently trading more than 60% below their peak at the end of January.
GameStop appointed Cohen to head a strategic planning and capital allocation committee in early March. As part of this role, Cohen was to strengthen GameStop’s e-commerce operations.
GameStop, like many retailers, has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Sales in its last quarter were down 3% from a year ago and below Wall Street expectations.
But GameStop was struggling even before the coronavirus, largely due to the shift to more online and mobile games that can be downloaded directly to phones, consoles, PCs and tablets.
Enter Cohen, who first took a stake in GameStop in September 2020. His influence with the retailer is paying off. Although overall sales declined during the 2020 holiday period, online sales more than doubled. E-commerce now accounts for more than a third of total revenue, down from just 12% in the fourth quarter of 2019.
