Gamestop Announces Layoffs and Fires CFO stock is up almost 104% in the last few days, thanks to amateur tipsters and Reddit-based retail investors buying shares to punish hedge funds shorting the stock. But the retailer has also announced layoffs and fired its CFO, Mike Recupero.
The layoffs are part of an aggressive turnaround plan aimed at eliminating excess costs and operating more profitably. CEO Matt Furlong outlined the cuts in an internal memo obtained by CNBC.
Gamestop Announces Layoffs
GameStop, the retailer of video games and electronics, is making significant changes to its staff, including laying off corporate employees. This comes as the company aims to continue work on a digital and technological transformation, according to an internal memo.
CEO Matt Furlong wrote in the memo that the layoffs are part of a “significant investment” to improve sales growth and increase profitability. The cuts will enable the company to operate more nimbly and focus on investing in store leaders and field employees, Furlong said.
The move comes as the company lost $158 million in its first quarter, compared to a $67 million loss in the year-earlier period. The retailer has been undergoing a turnaround led by investor and current board chairman Ryan Cohen, who took over the company last year.
Corporate Leaders
He brought in new corporate leaders to oversee the turnaround, including Mike Recupero, a former Amazon executive who joined GameStop just over a year ago. The CFO was fired as he was “too hands off” and a bad fit for the company’s culture, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.
During the past 18 months, GameStop has made substantial investments in inventory, technology and supply chain infrastructure. The company has also hired hundreds of executives and employees, with the aim of making it more competitive against online retailers like Amazon.
However, the retailer has been struggling to find success in its e-commerce business and its brick-and-mortar locations. As a result, the retailer has suffered from a series of losses.
One of the biggest issues for the company is its lack of a strategic plan. While the company has tried to improve its e-commerce offerings, it hasn’t been able to fully capture the market share of online retailers like Amazon.
As a result, the retailer has been forced to rethink its strategy and look for ways to turn around its business. It’s also attempting to catch up to a shift in consumer trends, particularly the growing popularity of buying and selling gaming options on social media platforms.
Gamestop Announces Layoffs CFO change
Video game retailer gamestop is laying off a number of employees and is firing its chief financial officer, according to Bloomberg News. The moves are part of Gamestop Announces Layoffs a wide-ranging restructuring that CEO Matt Furlong is spearheading, and the cuts will impact both corporate staff and Game Informer, a game journalism outlet owned by the company since 2000.
The company is reducing its workforce by a “number of people,” according to an internal memo and a source familiar with the matter, who emphasized the company’s plans to invest in store leaders. The reductions are part of a wider plan to “keep things simple and operate nimbly,” the memo said.
Store Chain
While the retail store chain is undergoing a major turnaround under Chairman Ryan Cohen, it remains a brick-and-mortar business that will face stiff competition from online sales. It has been struggling to shift its business to digital, and it recently launched a wallet that allows gamers to store, send and receive non-fungible tokens (NFTs) without paying the traditional exchange fees.
On Wednesday, GameStop announced plans to conduct a 4-for-1 stock split that will make its shares cheaper, but the move won’t change the company’s total value. Its stock climbed on Thursday, as investors were hopeful the break would attract a new fan base.
But even as the Gamestop Announces Layoffs company’s share price surged, it was still down 21% this year. That’s a far cry from the frenzied run-up in 2021, which came after a group of Redditors banded together to attack hedge funds that had bet against the company as part of an anti-Wall Street meme stock movement.
It was a wildly popular move, with GameStop stock jumping more than 40% in just a few days. But a few months later, the stock plunged as investors lost confidence in the company’s turnaround.
Traders were betting on Cohen’s strategy, which calls for GameStop to focus more on its e-commerce business and to double down on blockchain initiatives, including a new digital asset wallet that stores, sends and receives NFTs without the traditional exchange fees. But the NFT market has struggled, and investors are still cautious about whether the blockchain initiative will pay off.
NFT marketplace.
Video game retailer Gamestop has launched its nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, months after it first announced plans for a crypto hub. The platform, which works on a layer 2 Ethereum scaler called Loopring, allows users to connect their wallets to buy, sell and trade NFTs for digital assets such as skins, in-game items, avatars and more.
The NFT marketplace is accessible for a variety of crypto wallets, including MetaMask and the recently developed GameStop Wallet. It also uses a blockchain system known as Loopring, which offers cheap transaction fees and high scalability.
On the NFT marketplace homepage, users can find NFT collections created by a wide range of companies and developers.
Using the platform, users can deposit ETH in order to purchase NFTs. To do this, users need to sign up for a free account or link their existing connected wallets to the NFT marketplace, then input their ETH address and select the type of NFT they wish to deposit.
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Once they have deposited their ETH, they can click on the NFT’s “purchase” button to make their payment. The company claims to use low-cost, carbon-neutral transaction fees and offers a choice between debit or credit card funds. To withdraw ETH, users can use a wallet service such as Ramp or Wyre.
NFT market has been Gamestop
While the NFT market has been Gamestop Announces Layoffs declining since it peaked in late 2021, it remains a popular option for gamers looking to buy virtual assets and other digital products. Its sales and trading volumes have continued to grow, even though it is a relatively new trend.
In February 2022, GameStop announced a partnership with Immutable X to launch an NFT platform. The deal backed NFT creators with $100 million in Immutable X’s IMX tokens and included a grant program to support NFT creation.
As of July 11, the GameStop NFT marketplace has over 92,700 NFTs on its site. The NFT marketplace allows for a variety of different currency types, including BTC, ETH and USDT.
E-commerce
E-commerce, or electronic commerce, refers to the sale of goods and services over the internet. It’s an increasingly popular way for businesses to market their products and services to consumers, and has become a vital component of any business plan.
In the United States, e-commerce sales grew to 9.7% of total retail sales last year — up from 1.6% in 2003. This is a huge increase, and represents a massive opportunity for companies to market their products in new and exciting ways.
Best part of E-Commerce
The best part of e-commerce is that it’s often free, and can be used to promote a range of different products and services, from t-shirts to books to video games. It also allows businesses to communicate with their customers in a variety of ways, ranging from online customer service centers to social media channels.
Interestingly, e-commerce is actually not a new idea. Back in the 1960s, EDI and ARPAnet were invented to facilitate the transfer of data between businesses.
A plethora of other technologies have been used to power the latest iterations of e-commerce, including cloud computing and mobile apps. The main point of e-commerce is to make it easier for consumers to shop for goods and services, and provide a streamlined customer experience.
For its part, game retailer GameStop (GME) has been experimenting with e-commerce for years. While its recent e-commerce offerings are still relatively limited, the company is in the process of implementing a variety of technologies and strategies to better serve its customers. From better delivery times to a shiny new e-commerce site, the company is taking its cues from its competitors to keep up with the competition and improve its bottom line.
