GameStop’s Group Director of eCommerce Engineering has made a bold claim while searching for candidates to fill never-ending positions at the transforming gaming retailer.

GameStop has been undergoing a behind-the-scenes tech-centric transformation, largely revealed by hoards of new talent brought on after the January agreement with Ryan Cohen’s firm RC Ventures.

another new guy

Mike Angstadt has only been a member of GameStop’s corporate team since early August, but already seems in-the-know to what’s coming next for the aspiring tech company.

The self-proclaimed builder, leader, and innovator is based in Austin Texas and now holds the position of Group Director of eCommerce Engineering at GameStop.

Angstadt describes his supportive role in one sentence via LinkedIn:

Supporting the eCommerce Engineering teams at GameStop through our revolution of the gaming industry.

Mike Angstadt’s job description as of August 25th, 2021.

In an August 23rd post on the social media platform, Angstadt stated that GameStop was looking to hire for a rapidly growing all-star team at GameStop eCommerce, implying that GameStop has started an internal division just for eCommerce initiatives.

The Group Director of eCommerce Engineering goes as far as to state that GameStop is engineering the revolution of gaming.

Mike Angstadt’s LinkedIn post from August 23rd.

What’s the job?

The position that Mike Angstadt is recruiting for is available fully-remote, enabling great engineers to apply to work for GameStop no matter their location.

The job description makes several requests that applicants are to place emphasis on customer experiences, such as:

  • Thrive in an ambiguous environment, be resourceful, and make tradeoffs to deliver customer impact.
  • Exhibit a bias for action, constantly looking for ways to improve performance and customer experience.
  • Be results-oriented, data-driven, and passionate about building innovative customer experiences.

The Software Engineer, Ecom Platform job posting from GameStop.

Interestingly, GameStop also asks that applicants have the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, startup-like environment.

  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, startup-like, agile development environment.

In May, GMEdd proclaimed that GameStop’s success in acquiring new talent is at a rate that can be compared only to the likes of the hottest new startup.

The frenzy continues

Since then, GameStop has continued the recruiting frenzy, amassing over 130 distinguished hires to gear up for a groundbreaking transformation.

GMEdd’s GameStop August 26th Tech Hire Database.

There doesn’t seem to be any brakes on this train, with new hires being unveiled on LinkedIn almost daily. 

While Ryan Cohen has no known plans to publicize his roadmap moving forward, sleuthing around on LinkedIn remains the best way to make educated guesses as to what comes next for GameStop.

To stay up to date on the latest tech hires, visit GMEdd.com’s Report and Models page.

Source: Mike Angstadt on LinkedIn

GameStop Corp., today announced that it will report second quarter fiscal 2021 earnings results after the market closes on Wednesday, September 8, 2021.

The gaming retailer in the midst of transformation will host an investor conference call at 5:00 pm ET on the same day to review the company’s financial results. This call and any supplemental information can be accessed at GameStop’s investor relations home page.

Where to tune in

The phone number for the investor conference call is 877-451-6152 and the confirmation code is 13722703. The conference call will be archived for two months on GameStop’s corporate website.

GMEdd.com has hosted livestreams for prior conference calls, as viewership often surpasses what GameStop’s systems can handle.

We advise all GameStop investors follow @GMEdd on Twitter for updates.

The significance

This will mark the first earnings call since the departure of former CEO George Sherman, so a change of pace is to be expected.

While Ryan Cohen announced at the Annual Shareholder’s Meeting that he does not plan to talk a big game, investors will anticipate some direction from the gaming retailer under new leadership.

The newly instated CEO Matt Furlong, a former Amazon executive, will likely speak during the majority of the conference call, if tradition continues.

Source: GameStop News Room

With previously outgoing executives closing brick-and-mortar stores and new leadership directing a technology-based transformation, the fate of GameStop’s own Game Informer was left uncertain.

Game Informer is a monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles.

The Game Informer Show was started in September of 2009 as a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews.

The History

The Game Informer publication debuted 30 years ago, in August 1991, when the video game retailer FuncoLand started publishing an in-house newsletter.

Game Informer’s first release was the iconic Fall Issue of 1991.

GameStop acquired FuncoLand in 2000. Due to this acquisition, a large amount of promotion has been done in-store, which has contributed to the success of the magazine; as of 30 June 2017 it was the 5th most popular magazine by copies circulated. 

Game Informer has transitioned to a more online-based focus since the 2010s, becoming an important part of GameStop’s customer loyalty program, PowerUp Rewards, which offers subscribers access to special content on the official website.

In August 2019, after months of declining financials for GameStop, about half of the existing Game Informer staff were let go, part of the larger cut of more than 120 jobs by GameStop as part of the effort to improve their financial performance.

Luckily, Game Informer’s story doesn’t end there.

The Revival

In April 2021, GameStop poached 8-year Amazon veteran Elliott Wilke as Chief Growth Officer, tasked to oversee growth strategies for Power Up Rewards and Game Informer.

GameStop’s announcement post for Elliott Wilke on LinkedIn.

Since then, the company has implemented several fan-supported upgrades to Power Up Rewards such as exclusive access to coveted restocks of next-gen consoles and graphics cards.

On August 19th, Game Informer has unveiled a revamped Game Informer Show, featuring new hosts and a better audio experience.

Gamers and investors alike can watch Game Informer’s video update here on their official YouTube channel.

With former host Ben Reeves holding new responsibilities as Game Informer’s Online Content Director, he passes the torch onto a different pair of hosts, Alex Stadnik and Alex Van Aken, who are taking the show in a new direction.

The format is changing and the show now features a news section, weekly roundtable chats about industry topics, and more.

So What?

Podcast viewership is on the rise, with 55% (155 million) of the US population having listened to a podcast in 2020 – up from 51% in 2019, citing data from The Infinite Dial.

For Game Informer to excel alongside GameStop’s transformation, increased focus on the latest trends in digital content consumption will be necessary, and now appear to be under way.

Sources: Kotaku, The Infinite Dial, Game Informer on YouTube, Alliance for Audited Media

The Wall Street Journal spoke to current and former GameStop board members to break the news on conclusions GMEdd drew four months ago. 

The story GameStop’s Power Player: How Outsider Ryan Cohen Wrested Control by Sarah E. Needleman at the Wall Street Journal released today describes an inside look at how the founder of Chewy took over a struggling gaming retailer.

Strikingly enough, GMEdd already published most of these details by analyzing digital breadcrumbs, without speaking to any confidential sources.

The story begins in 2019

Back in May, GMEdd.com revealed that Ryan Cohen had started to build his GameStop position as early as 2019, which has now been discovered by the Wall Street Journal.

To recap, the company was hoping for a buyout after years of unfruitful executive shakeups.

In early 2019, GameStop tried and failed to sell itself after years of stagnant growth and corporate strategy missteps. That spring, it hired a new CEO, George Sherman, a veteran of retailers including Advance Auto Parts. Mr. Sherman was GameStop’s fifth CEO in less than two years. Later in 2019, Mr. Cohen began building his stake. [WSJ,  Aug. 12 2021]

The WSJ now reports that Ryan Cohen’s swift accumulation of power at GameStop was orchestrated from his Florida beachfront apartment as the result of a series of previously unreported moves, people familiar with the matter said.

August 2020 ownership disclosure by Ryan Cohen and RC Ventures.

In May, GMEdd wraps up the history of Ryan Cohen’s initial GameStop strategy as:

Ryan Cohen started buying into GameStop in April of 2019, with a disclosure following increased holdings in August 2020. It’s unknown as to when he made the decision and how much time was spent beforehand figuring out activist investor logistics coinciding with a PR blitz, but it is reasonable to assume he was strategically building public-facing credibility for himself before revealing his high-stakes investment. [GMEdd, May 29 2021]

Have a seat

The WSJ reports that as GameStop’s board learned of Ryan Cohen’s stock purchases the directors offered him a board seat, according to current and former board members.

This aligns with the detail pointed out by GMEdd’s own Rod Alzmann that GameStop’s Investor Relations had referred to Ryan Cohen as a great shareholder since April of 2019.

Rod Alzmann’s rough notes after speaking to GameStop IR in late 2020.

The confidential sources claim that Cohen turned down the entreaty, telling directors that a sole board seat would give him no meaningful influence over decision making.

In November, Ryan Cohen released his famous letter stating just that.

According to these sources, the board responded to Cohen’s November 2020 letter by hosting a private call with the activist investor.

kill the cash cushion

The WSJ reports that Cohen erupted the following month when GameStop said it would sell $100 million in new stock.

Directors claim that the topic hadn’t come up on his call with the board.

Cohen, a 12.9% shareholder of GameStop at the time, reportedly worried the plan would damage the company’s standing among investors by reducing the value of existing shares.

The confidential source reveals that in response, Cohen wrote an email to GameStop’s then-chairwoman, Kathy Vrabeck, warning her that he would go public with his disapproval if the company proceeded with the sale.

Verbatim, we imagine the email went something like this.

Cohen urged her to share the email with other directors, people familiar with the matter said. The company shortly after scuttled the planned stock sale, for reasons undisclosed.

A former board member claims that Cohen made a significant power move here.

The ill-timed stock offering created a wedge and he used it to his advantage.

Reportedly leery of a prolonged fight and open to new ideas to improve the business, the board invited Cohen and his former business partners Jim Grube and Alan Attal to join in January.

“Welcome” aboard

The sources claim that Ryan Cohen approached his first board meeting, held over videoconference that same month, as a blitz.

Cohen also attended the Annual Shareholders Meeting via videoconference in June.

In his first meeting on the board, Cohen reportedly proposed the formation of a new committee to review GameStop’s strategy for spending and hiring.

Cohen requested this committee consist of himself, fellow activist investor Kurt Wolf and former Chewy executive Alan Attal. Some members of the board said they worried about permitting Cohen so much power on subjects of day-to-day management, but the proposal was approved.

GameStop announced the committee via News Release on March 8th.

The WSJ reports that Mr. Cohen proceeded to personally recruit new talent, including executives from Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Chewy, all big names that GMEdd has been tracking hires from since May.

Cohen reportedly countered other executives that questioned his decisions, telling them that “the pace of change needed to quicken.”

In an instance shared by people familiar with the matter, Ryan Cohen asked a company executive to sign a deal to lease a new fulfillment center, hoping to speed up delivery times for customers’ online orders.

The executive reportedly pushed back with the belief that such a request from a director was unusual and against company policy that called for such contracts to undergo vetting that included multiple executives. The project later moved forward.

Sudden rise

GameStop directors were reportedly concerned about the sudden rise in valuation.

The board debated whether to discuss it publicly and whether the stock volatility could lead to shareholder lawsuits, current and former directors said.

Few directors other than Mr. Cohen were familiar with Reddit, the social network where speculative investors began to conjugate, board members said.

GameStop quickly became Reddit’s stock market darling.

The WSJ reports that Ryan Cohen’s rapidly-growing celebrity status, combined with his tendency to dabble in the company’s operations, earned him fans neither in the boardroom nor among GameStop’s executive ranks.

“Ryan personified a hero against the hedge funds,” a former board member said

One GameStop director, PetSmart Inc. chief executive J.K. Symancyk, on multiple occasions told board members that Chewy under Mr. Cohen was unprofitable and later required a full information-technology overhaul, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Several directors interpreted the remarks from Mr. Symancyk, who met Mr. Cohen in the process of joining PetSmart, as criticism. Others reportedly viewed the commentaries as matter-of-fact descriptions.

Get the bell out

In an effort to gain more control of GameStop’s spending,  Cohen pushed for finance chief Jim Bell to be the first senior executive to go, people familiar with the matter said.

It worked.

On February 23rd, 2021, GameStop announced Jim Bell’s resignation via News Release.

A handful of top executives, including CEO George Sherman, considered stepping down and claiming their contracts had been breached because of the reduction in their duties due to the board member’s involvement in corporate affairs, a person familiar with the matter said. 

The WSJ reports that the new board member was brash and outspoken, while George Sherman, 60, tended to keep to himself, people who know them both said. 

Though Mr. Sherman worked through most of the pandemic in GameStop’s Texas headquarters, it was Mr. Cohen, on all-hours video calls from his apartment, who called many of the shots, according to board members.

On top of this, new employees, likely appointed by Cohen, frequently sought out the brash new board member directly with questions about the business or operations, bypassing the CEO, people familiar said.

Ryan Cohen encouraged Mr. Sherman to step aside, and in April he agreed.

George Sherman officially departed GameStop in June.

In private conversations, Cohen reportedly expressed shock that even executives with relatively short tenures could leave with lucrative stock awards.

Moving Forward

In conversations with directors and executives, the new Chairman emphasized improving the experience for GameStop customers, predicting that gamers will support the company if it provides better service, competitive prices and faster shipping.

The WSJ claims that people familiar with the matter said that through midsummer, GameStop has hired more than 80 new employees with technology experience.

Huh. Wonder where they got that data.

View GMEdd’s latest tech hire report, detailing over 100 tech hires, at GMEdd’s Reports and Model page.

While the former board had intentions to sell shares at sub-$20 for an insignificant cash cushion, Ryan Cohen has raised more than $1.6 billion at greater than $200 per share, eliminating the company’s long-term debt and funding a transformation that will be studied in business schools for decades.

Power to the players.

Source: Wall Street Journal