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Ryan Cohen was appointed the company’s CEO, president and chairman and won’t receive compensation for his work.
The move comes more than three months after GameStop fired then-CEO Matthew Furlong.
Shares of GameStop surged after the announcement.

GameStop said Thursday morning that billionaire activist investor Ryan Cohen would take over as the video game retailer’s chief executive, chairman and president effective immediately — and he won’t be collecting a salary.
Shares of the company jumped more than 6% in premarket trading following the announcement.

GameStop’s board, with Cohen abstaining, unanimously voted to appoint the entrepreneur as the retailer’s top executive on Wednesday. Cohen had previously held the title of executive chairman but will step down from the role upon his latest appointment, according to a securities filing.
Cohen won’t “receive any compensation” for his work, a news release said.
The move comes more than three months after GameStop fired CEO Matthew Furlong, made Cohen executive chairman and appointed longtime company soldier Mark Robinson as its “principal executive officer” and general manager. GameStop didn’t give a reason for Furlong’s dismissal at the time, but it came just months after the company had reported its first quarterly profit in two years with Furlong at the helm.
Several weeks later, the company announced that CFO Diana Saadeh-Jajeh was resigning.

GameStop Chairman Ryan Cohen.
Source: CNBC

With the latest move, Cohen will also assume the role of principal executive officer from Robinson. He previously served as general counsel and secretary, and he added principal executive officer to his list of duties back in June. Now, he will resume as just general counsel and secretary, according to a securities filing.

Cohen, who founded pet food retailer Chewy and has become known as the “king” of meme stocks, bought a stake in GameStop in 2020 and joined the board in 2021 – during the height of the meme phenomenon.
As of late June, his firm RC Ventures was GameStop’s largest shareholder with a 12.09% stake, according to FactSet.
Since Cohen joined the company, the business hasn’t shown many signs of a turnaround, albeit with some exceptions. Earlier this month, GameStop reported its second-quarter financial results, posting a narrower loss than it did a year ago, as well as a slight increase in revenue.
Read the release here. More

Delta earlier this month started making it harder for many customers to earn elite status and get into airport lounges.
Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian earlier this week vowed “modifications” to the recent program overhaul after a backlash from customers.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 717-200 airplane as seen on the final approach landing at New York JFK John F. Kennedy International Airport, NYC, USA.
NurPhoto / Contributor

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the airline will make “modifications” in the next few weeks to its loyalty program after a recently announced overhaul that would make it more expensive for many travelers to earn elite status and get into airport lounges was met with a backlash from customers.
“No question we probably went too far,” Bastian said at the Rotary Club of Atlanta on Monday.

The program changes, which Delta unveiled earlier this month, would reward customers with elite status based on how much they spent, a model similar to that of American Airlines, and reduce access to Delta popular airport Sky Club lounges for many American Express cardholders.
JetBlue Airways tried to capitalize on some customers’ anger over Delta’s changes by offering frequent flyer status matching, saying, “we’ve made it easy for you to cozy up to a new loyalty program and see where it goes.”
Delta has been grappling with a surge in elite travelers, bolstered by Covid pandemic and post-pandemic spending, and swarms of travelers trying to get into its lounges, leading to long lines for many customers. The airline and rivals including American and United have been racing to build bigger airport lounges to cater to swelling numbers of big spenders.
Bastian said the airline will announce the updated program changes in the coming weeks. A Delta spokesman declined to comment further on the changes.
“It’s gotten to the point, honestly, where we have so much demand for our premium product and services that are far in excess of our ability to serve it effectively in terms of our assets,” Bastian said.

He said that over Covid, the airline has doubled the number of Diamond Medallion status members.
David Neeleman, CEO of Breeze Airways and founder of JetBlue, told CNBC on Wednesday that he has Delta Medallion status and that he tries to use Delta’s airport lounges but that sometimes “there’s a big line and it’s not worth it.”
Delta last year announced several changes to crack down on overcrowding at the clubs, such as barring employees from using them when flying standby with company travel privileges, even if they had qualifying credit cards. The Atlanta-based carrier also raised prices for club memberships for regular customers. More

The Pentagon has awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX its first confirmed contract for the Starshield network it’s developing.
A Space Force spokesperson confirmed that SpaceX on Sept. 1 was awarded a one-year contract for Starshield with a maximum value of $70 million.
The Pentagon is already a high-value buyer of the company’s rocket launches and had shown increasing interest in its Starlink satellite internet.

An uncaptioned image posted on the company’s website appears to show Starshield technology in orbit.

The Pentagon has awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX its first confirmed contract for the Starshield network it’s developing, a military-specific version of the company’s Starlink satellite internet system, the defense agency said Wednesday.
A Space Force spokesperson confirmed that SpaceX on Sept. 1 was awarded a one-year contract for Starshield with a maximum value of $70 million. The award came alongside 18 other companies through a program run by the Space Force’s commercial satellite communications office.

“The SpaceX contract provides for Starshield end-to-end service (via the Starlink constellation), user terminals, ancillary equipment, network management and other related services,” Space Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek told CNBC.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the Starshield contract.
The company unveiled Starshield last year as a new business line. The Pentagon is already a high-value buyer of the company’s rocket launches and had shown increasing interest in its Starlink satellite internet.
SpaceX has given few details about the intended scope and capabilities of Starshield. It markets the service as the center of an “end-to-end,” dedicated offering for national security with capabilities distinct from its Starlink consumer and enterprise network.

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SpaceX’s award for Starshield follows its June win of a Pentagon contract to buy an undefined number of Starlink ground terminals for use in Ukraine.

The initial phase of the Starshield contract obligates $15 million to SpaceX by Sept. 30, to provide services that support 54 military “mission partners” across Department of Defense branches, the spokesperson said.
Bloomberg first reported the contract on Thursday.
— CNBC’s Claudia Johnson contributed to this report. More