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Shares of GameStop went up by more than 100% on Wednesday as investors rushed to buy them after a shake-up in the top management.
With less than 30 minutes left in the trading day, shares were stopped, and at the end of the day, the stock was up 103.9%. On Wednesday, after business hours, shares of GameStop went up by another 83%.
GameStop said on Tuesday that its CFO, Jim Bell, will leave the company on March 26.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said, “Mr. Bell’s resignation had nothing to do with any disagreement with the Company about its operations, policies, or practices, including its accounting principles and practices.”
Sources close to the situation told Business Insider that Bell didn’t want to leave, but was forced out by Ryan Cohen, who is the co-founder of Chewy and invested in GameStop last year to help the company speed up its online push.
Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg News on Tuesday night that GameStop’s board fired Bell so that the company’s turnaround could happen more quickly.
Cohen’s appointment to the GameStop board helped push the heavily shorted stock up in January. This led to the epic short squeeze in GameStop, which caused retail trading mania and eventually got the attention of Congress.
“We know that activist settlements often lead to changes in leadership, and Mr. Bell’s departure was mutual, not immediate, and suggests there were no disagreements with the company or board,” Stephanie Wissink, an analyst at Jefferies, told clients. “We think Mr. Bell should be recognized for a number of things he did to protect GME’s equity when sales were way down at the end of the last hardware cycle.”
Jefferies also said that GameStop is likely to look for a new CFO with a background in tech instead of retail as the company focuses on growing its e-commerce business.
On Wednesday, a few other Reddit trades went up after business hours. Shares of AMC went up 22%, and shares of Koss went up 57%.
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