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At GameStop there is a ruthless change. The company’s latest chief financial officer, Mike Recupero, has resigned and another round of mass layoffs is taking place at the video game retailer, though his meme shares continue to rise in price. CEO Matt Furlong told staff in a Kotaku-reviewed email Thursday that the “reductions” were an attempt to help the company operate more “agilely” as it pursues profitability through an “intense mindset.” of the owner “.
“Change will be a constant as we evolve our business and launch new products through our blockchain group,” read the first line of Furlong’s email, referring to GameStop’s recent pivot toward cryptography. Email continued:
Having invested heavily in supply chain technology, technology, inventory and infrastructure over the past 18 months, our focus is on achieving sustained profitability, ”Furlong told staff in an email, adding : “This means eliminating excessive costs and operating with an intense owner mindset. . Everyone in the organization needs to be even more practical and adopt a higher level of responsibility for results.
Although confirmation of the layoffs began to reach LinkedIn, it is still unclear how many are affected. The layoffs appear to be centered at GameStop’s headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, but also appear to include part of the staff of Game Informer, the decades-old gaming magazine the retailer acquired when it bought Funcoland in 2000.
GameStop headquarters suffered a similar round of layoffs in late May. These affected more than 100 employees in various departments, according to a current employee and a former employee. GameStop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Furlong’s email said that Recovery, which only started at GameStop a year ago, would be replaced by current accounting director Diana Saadeh-Jajeh, making her the third executive to hold the title in so many years. . The email also mentioned a new initiative to make a “significant investment” in the company’s front-line workers, but did not go into specific details.
Despite the unexpected $ 1 billion in sales of meme stocks last year, employees of real GameStop stores routinely complain about poor pay and exhaustion. In June, a Nebraska location was temporarily closed when employees resigned in protest and told customers to buy elsewhere. According to a new SEC filing, Saadeh-Jajeh will receive a $ 1,965,000 “transformation bonus” paid in installments through August 2023 and $ 1 million in new shares to be granted next year. This is in addition to an annual salary of $ 200,000. Many employees at the GameStop store say they earn less than $ 15 an hour.
This week, GameStop also announced a four-by-one “stock split” that will give more shares to investors who already own shares. For Investopedia, “Although the number of shares outstanding increases by a specific multiple, the total dollar value of all shares outstanding remains the same because a division does not fundamentally change the value of the company,” he noted. that the move is often made in an attempt to help a company increase its liquidity. As a result, GameStop shares have already risen by about 10%. It ended up trading at just over $ 135 per share today.
Updated: 7/7/22, 5:25 PM ET: More information on executive pay has been added.