GameStop said Wednesday that it has appointed former Amazon executive Matt Furlong as its new CEO.
It has also picked another former Amazon executive, Mike Recupero, as chief financial officer.
GameStop’s stock was down more than 12% in extended trading after the company announced its new leadership and its fiscal first-quarter results, which showed sales up 25% and a narrower loss than it reported a year ago.
Furlong will start his new role on June 21. He has worked for Amazon for nearly nine years, most recently leading the growth of its Australia business. Prior to that, he served as a technical advisor to the head of Amazon’s North America consumer business and worked for Procter & Gamble.
Recupero began his career at Amazon 17 years ago. Most recently, he was the chief financial officer of its North American consumer business. He previously held similar roles within Amazon’s prime video, European consumer and advertising units.
The video game retailer is in the early days of trying to turn around its business. It has named a fresh slate of executives to lead its shift from being a brick-and-mortar retailer to an online player that can fend off competitors such as Walmart, Sony and Microsoft. The company needs to find a strategy to grow its sales. Its stock has also gotten a boost from a Reddit-inspired trading frenzy.
Over the past few months, it has hired three former Amazon executives, Jenna Owens, its new chief operating officer; Matt Francis, its first chief technology officer; and Elliott Wilke, its chief growth officer. It also tapped Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen to lead its e-commerce efforts. It named Cohen chairman at a shareholder meeting Wednesday.
Cohen took a stake in GameStop last year. In January, he and two other former Chewy executives were named to the retailer’s board as part of an agreement with the company’s management.
GameStop said in the spring that outgoing CEO George Sherman would step down July 31 or earlier, pending the appointment of a successor.
Read GameStop’s earnings release here and its CEO and CFO press release here.
Source: Business - cnbc.com
