GameStop fires chief financial officer, shares fall

FILE PHOTO: A person walks past a GameStop store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., on January 29, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

GameStop Corp said Thursday it had terminated the employment of Chief Financial Officer Michael Recupero, sending shares of the video game retailer down 8% in extended trading.

The exit was first reported by Axios, which also said the company was laying off an undisclosed number of employees, citing a memo.

GameStop did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Shares closed about 15% higher in regular trading after the company announced a four-for-one stock split late Wednesday.

Recupero, who was previously chief financial officer of Amazon’s North American consumer business, will be replaced by Chief Accounting Officer Diana Saadeh-Jajeh.

As part of efforts to focus on online sales following the pandemic, GameStop last year also tapped Amazon Australia’s head, Matt Furlong, as its chief executive officer.

Both executives were hired as chairman Ryan Cohen pushed for a turnaround at the largely brick-and-mortar retailer and led a total shake-up of the management team.

The company also launched a digital asset wallet in May to store, send, receive and use cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens.

Along with AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, GameStop was at the heart of a meme-stock trading phenomenon in 2021, when retail investors banded together on social media forums to punish hedge funds that had bet against the stocks.

However, GameStop and other retail darlings fell out of favor as interest waned amid a market selloff on recession fears. Up to Wednesday’s close, the company’s shares were down about 21% this year.

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