Dive Brief:
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GameStop Corp. has named two long-time Amazon executives, Matt Furlong and Mike Recupero, its new CEO and CFO, respectively. Furlong will start June 21, and Recupero July 12.
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Furlong and Recupero are the latest Amazon execs to join GameStop’s C-suite. Jenna Owens, its new COO; Matt Francis, its first chief technology officer, and Elliott Wilke, its chief growth officer, all arrived over the past few months from Amazon.
- Also Wednesday, Grapevine, Tex.-based GameStop shared its first quarter earnings, which showed a 25% increase in sales and a narrower year-over-year loss.
Dive Insight:
Furlong has been at Amazon for nearly nine years, most recently overseeing its Australia business. Before that, he spent 12 years as an associate director at Procter & Gamble.
Recupero has spent nearly 20 years leading finance at Amazon in various divisions, including customer service, digital advertising and Prime Video. Most recently, he was CFO of its North American consumer business.
GameStop also tapped Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to become board chairman and lead its e-commerce efforts, CNBC reported. In January, Cohen, who owns 12% of the company, joined GameStop’s board of directors.
In April, shortly after Cohen joined the board, GameStop said CEO George Sherman, its fifth CEO since 2017, would step down by July 31, Retail Dive reported.
GameStop’s former CFO, Jim Bell, was pushed out in February, CFO Dive reported, after losing the board’s faith following its January trading frenzy related to the Reddit page WallStreetBets.
With Cohen in charge, the video game is attempting to revitalize its business with a renewed focus on digital sales and a move away from brick-and-mortar locations, in a play to challenge competitors like Walmart, Sony and Amazon. “These appointments reflect the refreshed Board’s focus on building a technology company and investing in growth," GameStop said in a statement.
The C-suite changes are the latest since the company was rocked by the historic Reddit-related trading fluctuations. Over the month of January, GameStop share prices ballooned nearly 1,915%. It was one of the first of what analysts are calling meme stocks — stocks with volatile price changes driven by social media activism.
