On November 16, 2020 – 90 days after buying approximately 10% of the company – Ryan Cohen writes a letter to the GameStop Board of Directors and outlines his vision for the company.
Subject: “Maximizing Stockholder Value by Becoming the Ultimate Destination for Gamers”
GameStop, at this time, was indisputably suffering from serious problems that, if left unchecked, would have probably led to GameStop’s demise. This letter provides insight into what RC’s plan for turning around GameStop would look like.
Superstonk discussion of this topic, May 15, 2021
In the letter, RC emphasizes that for the company to succeed, it will need to fix the major problems that it had, and pivot towards “a technology-driven vision.”
In the concluding paragraph, RC states that “RC Ventures is not interested in receiving a lone seat on GameStop’s ten-member Board.”
Since writing the letter, RC proceeded to replace the entire board of directors with himself and former colleagues from Chewy, and on June 9, 2021, RC becomes chairman of the board of directors of GameStop.
From the discussion in the November 20, 2022 interview, RC and board “inherited a bunch of legacy everything, and under-investment across the entire business – people, the entire technology stack, just decades of neglect” that needed to be addressed.
As a shareholder without access to observe the inner workings of the company, it can be hard to assess all of the changes and improvements that have been made to the company.
What we have been able to observe is a significant improvement to the company’s overall financial strength.
Under RC’s leadership, among other things, the company has improved operations, eliminated practically all debt, and greatly reduced financial losses.
The company has also been working on various web3-gaming related technology initiatives, though these have yet to materialize into meaningful revenue growth.
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