GameStop Down 19% After Firing CEO, Abruptly Cancelling Earnings Call

Shortly after releasing its Q1 earnings report on Wednesday afternoon, the shares of the video game retailer GameStop fell by nearly 20%. Not only did the report disclose a net loss of $50.5 million, but the company announced it has terminated its CEO, Matthew Furong just days earlier.

GameStop Reports Net Loss of $50.5 Million in Q1 2023

The shares of GameStop entered into a sharp decline in Wednesday’s after-hours trading and were down approximately 19% at the time of writing. The decline occurred shortly after the retailer unveiled its Q1 earnings report.

According to the report, the company’s revenue in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to $1.24 billion. Additionally, the firm disclosed a net loss of $50.5 million—17 cents per share. Additionally, the retailer announced it would not hold an earnings call following the report.

A single quarter earlier the company’s report showcased a net profit of $48.2 million—its first such report in two years. The strong results for Q4 2022 ensured that the termination of the company’s CEO, Matthew Furlong this Wednesday raised some eyebrows.

GameStop Announced it Has Named Ryan Cohen as Executive Chairman

On the same day it published the earnings report, GameStop also announced it had terminated its CEO Matthew Furlong. Furlong oversaw the retailer’s first profitable quarter in two years at the tail end of 2022 and much of the company’s work on a digital presence.

While GameStop has been generally known as a traditional brick-and-mortar business, it has been actively expanding its online presence since the “meme stock” craze of early 2021. The company also embraced web3 and recently unveiled a partnership with Telos in an effort to offer blockchain-based video games on its new launcher, Playr.

In the same announcement, GameStop also revealed it has decided to name activist investor Ryan Cohen as Executive Chairman of its Board of Directors. According to the press release, Cohen is to oversee management and capital allocation.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist