GameStop Fires CEO

GameStop Corp. (Grapevine, Texas) said it has ousted its CEO of two years, Matthew Furlong. In a terse announcement, the company said its board has elected Ryan Cohen as Executive Chairman and that Furlong has been terminated.

Cohen’s responsibilities include capital allocation and overseeing management. In a separate filing with the government, the company said it had named company veteran Mark Robinson the new Principal Executive Officer of the company with the title of General Manager.

In its coverage of the moves, Gamespot.com reported Furlong was terminated “without cause,” which means he’ll be entitled to a number of benefits as outlined back in his hiring agreement from June 2021. His “resignation did not result from any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices,” the company said in the government filing.

Furlong was a longtime Amazon.com executive prior to joining the gamer retailer. He was hired about six months after the company had gone through the experience of being a so-called “meme stock.”

The announcement about Furlong’s exit coincided with the company’s release of its first quarter 2023 results. For that period, it reported revenue of $1.24 billion, down from $1.38 billion in the year-ago period, and that its net loss had narrowed to $50.5 million, down from $157.9 million a year earlier.

According to its website, the company has more than 6100 stores, roughly half of which are in the U.S.