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GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) conducted its annual meeting on Monday. The company ran through some of its normal course of business, including the submission of shareholder proposals. CEO Ryan Cohen said he is focused on building shareholder value for the long term and was not there to “hype things up.” Cohen said cutting costs and increasing profitability were the immediate goals.
The company’s board nominees were all approved by a voting majority of shareholders, and Deloitte Touché was approved to be the auditor again. A shareholder proposal on diversity disclosures failed to receive enough votes to pass.
During the Q&A session, GameStop (GME) management did not add anything new about its recent at-the-market share offering. In terms of the direct registration of shares, GameStop (GME) said it would work with its transfer agent to be supportive of its retail investors. In terms of questions on the future of the business, there was nothing added to Ryan Cohen’s initial statement. It is still unclear what the GameStop (GME) plan is for the +$4 billion of cash it is believed to still be holding.
Looking back, GameStop (GME) traces its roots back to Babbage’s, a Dallas-based software retailer founded in 1984. The company initially focused on selling games for the Atari 2600 before expanding into Nintendo games. In 1999, Babbage’s was acquired by Barnes & Noble and renamed GameStop. GameStop went public in 2002 and became fully independent of Barnes & Noble in 2004. A major milestone was the $1.44 billion acquisition of EB Games in 2005, transforming GameStop (GME) into a global retail gaming operator. Over the years, GameStop made several other strategic acquisitions, including Micromania in 2008 and digital game platforms like Kongregate. The rise of digital distribution severely impacted GameStop’s (GME) business model, leading to store closures and a major stock price decline from 2016 until the meme rally.
Shares of GameStop (GME) were down 11.25% in early afternoon trading on Monday. GME swapped hands at $24.23 at the low point of the session.
