GameStop (GME) has a new chief executive.
The video game distributor turned meme stock favorite named Ryan Cohen CEO and president on Thursday, according to a press release. The move comes after GameStop fired CEO Matthew Furlong in early June and Cohen was named executive chairman.
Cohen, the founder of Chewy (CHWY), whose net worth is estimated above $1 billion, won't be paid for his role, according to the release.
GameStop shares rose more than 3% in early trading on the news before falling into the red later in the trading session.
"Mr. Cohen has no significant experience managing a physical retailer, and we are skeptical that he was GameStop’s first choice for its CEO," Wedbush managing director Michael Pacther wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. "With no path to a turnaround and the inevitable migration of physical software sales to digital downloads, we think Mr. Cohen’s appointment ensures GameStop’s demise."
Cohen's rise to GameStop CEO is the culmination of his role in the meme stock movement. In 2021, he became a popular activist investor amid the meme stock craze. He joined the GameStop board in January 2021 as Reddit users flocked to the stock and sent shares skyrocketing up more than in the month.
The move to put Cohen at the helm of the company marks a shift in GameStop's turnaround efforts. Furlong, a former Amazon executive, had been viewed as someone who could bring GameStop further into the digital marketplace.
In the most recent quarter, GameStop reported a wider-than-expected loss per share and missed the Street's revenue estimates, though both metrics improved marginally from the same quarter a year prior.
Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance.
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
