GameStop names Amazon veterans as CEO, finance chief

NEW YORK (AP) — GameStop, the video-game retailer whose manic stock movements captivated Wall Street this year, said Wednesday that it’s brought on a pair of Amazon veterans as its new chief executive and chief financial officer to aid in its much anticipated digital turnaround.

Matt Furlong, who most recently oversaw Amazon’s Australia business and spent nine years with the company, will start as CEO on June 21. GameStop also said that Mike Recupero, who most recently was CFO of Amazon's North American consumer business, will begin as chief financial officer on July 12.

GameStop’s stock has been on a wild rocket ride, soaring more than 1,500% this year as waves of smaller-pocketed investors piled in on hopes that it can transform itself into an e-commerce powerhouse after seeing sales of video games at its brick-and-mortar stores falter. Investors pinned much of their hope on Ryan Cohen, a major investor who co-founded Chewy, the online seller of pet supplies.

GameStop became the face of the “meme stock” craze early this year, when a fanatical band of smaller-pocketed and novice investors encouraged each other to pile in. That helped trigger a “short squeeze,” which sent the stock flying.

Professional investors had sold much of GameStop’s stock “short,” essentially making bets that would profit if its price were to fall. They were skeptical GameStop had a bright future given how the migration of video-game sales toward online channels and away from GameStop's stores. But after the stock began rising sharply, those short sellers had to buy GameStop shares to get out of their bets, which created a feedback loop further goosing the share price.

The stock set a record closing high of $347.51 in late January, but it sank back below $41 within a few weeks. It’s since begun climbing again and closed Wednesday at $302.56.