GameStop investor Ryan Cohen urges strategic review

[November 17, 2020]  (Reuters) - One of GameStop Corp's largest shareholders, Ryan Cohen, has urged the videogame retailer to conduct a strategic review of its business and to focus on digital sales by moving away from its traditional brick-and-mortar model.

 A GameStop Inc. store is shown in Encinitas, California, U.S., May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Cohen's RC Ventures LLC, which owns nearly 10% of the company's outstanding common stock, is not interested in getting a board seat, according to a letter filed with regulators on Tuesday.

"GameStop needs to evolve into a technology company that delights gamers and delivers exceptional digital experiences – not remain a video game retailer that overprioritizes its brick-and-mortar footprint and stumbles around the online ecosystem," Cohen said in the letter https://www.sec.gov/Archives/
edgar/data/1326380/
000101359420000821/rc13da3-111620.pdf addressed to the board.

GameStop did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

Cohen, who is also a co-founder of e-commerce firm Chewy Inc, had raised his stake in GameStop in September and disclosed that he was in discussions with the company's management and board members.

GameStop's shares were down nearly 4% premarket trading.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Sriraj Kalluvila)

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