Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
Massive North American gaming retail GameStop has not had a great run of luck in the previous year. The COVID-19 pandemic all but hobbled the hybrid online and brick-and-mortar gaming outlet, and while GameStop attempted some pretty desperate looking measures to try to stop the bleeding, it often had questionable motives or consequences. Shockingly, the company looks like it’s kicking 2021 off on a good note. A recent look shows that GameStop’s stock increased sharply on news of adding further board member additions, as well as reports of particularly strong sales over the holidays.
It was in the last couple days that GameStop’s stock took a sudden climb, as observed and reported by The Street on January 13, 2021. At the time, GameStop (GME) had jumped up 55% to a share value of $30.83. The apparent cause was a pair of announcements from GameStop on its Investor Relations website on January 11, 2021. The first revealed that the company would be adding additional board members to help “transform” the direction of company business. The announced additions were Alan Attal, Ryan Cohen and Jim Grube, whom GameStop reportedly brought on for their expertise in “e-commerce, online marketing, finance and strategic planning”.
The other January 11 announcement from GameStop was a report of strong holiday 2020 sales. With Holiday 2020 having played host to the launch of both the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 consoles, as well as the Nintendo Switch continually selling well, GameStop was perfectly in position to capitalize on a big console season, especially with bot and aftermarket buyers and sellers making off with next-gen console supply in massive quantities at every sale opportunity.
Previously, GameStop had been in a tailspin. Despite bringing Reggie Fils-Aime into its board of directors, the company struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic and was seeing record lows in its stock prices. It will be interesting to see if GameStop’s good fortune holds out in 2021. The new generation of consoles definitely helped, but it will remain to be seen if its new board members can truly help turn things around at the company. Stay tuned for further updates as we follow the ongoing changes at GameStop.