GameStop fires CEO Matt Furlong months after axing crypto push

June 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The executive, once instrumental to the company’s NFT efforts, was “terminated” amid lackluster Q1 earnings.

GameStop has fired its CEO Matt Furlong, the executive responsible for launching the company’s push into nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

According to a June 7 statement, Furlong was terminated, while Ryan Cohen — a billionaire investor held in high esteem by memestock traders following the notorious GameStop short squeeze in 2021 — was promoted to the role of executive chairman. Minutes after the company announced Furlong’s termination, Cohen tweeted a cryptic message stating, “Not for long.“

Not for long
— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) June 7, 2023

The company did not provide a reason for Furlong’s termination. However, according to an 8-K filing made to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on June 9, 2021, Furlong’s contract specified 24 months of ongoing employment. In parallel, Furlong resigned as the director of the company, reducing the size of the board to five individuals.

Fun fact:

Matt Furlong only had a 24 month contract with Gamestop

that ended this week…https://t.co/GndJCl1VYJ pic.twitter.com/sn4TJEdTCj
— Victoria L. Bolton (@vickilaketta) June 8, 2023

The news came alongside Gamestop’s first quarter earnings call, which saw the gaming company report an earnings per share (EPS) that missed market expectations by more than 133%.

The company’s share price has plummeted to $21, currently down 19% in after-hours trading according to data from Google Finance.

Furlong joined GameStop as its CEO in June 2021, five months after the memestock frenzy that saw GameStop shares surge 3,000% from $17.25 to $500 within a single month.

GameStop first launched its NFT marketplace in June 2022, just as the market’s fascination with NFTs was beginning to wane. GameStop later added support for blockchain game NFTs on its marketplace, a move made possible by its partnership with Web3 gaming platform and Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution ImmutableX.

The company’s NFT marketplace debut was well-received, witnessing nearly $2 million in sales within the first 24 hours of the platform going online. However, things took a turn for the worse rather quickly. By August, daily sales volumes on the marketplace were hovering around the $4,000 mark — a 99.8% decline from its opening day frenzy.

In December, Gamestop announced that it would no longer be focusing any major efforts towards cryptocurrencies or NFTs, following on from a lousy Q3 earnings call that saw the company stack up $94.7 million in net losses and begin laying off staff.

Despite these statements, GameStop recently announced a partnership with the Australia-based blockchain game developer Illuvium, to debut a 20,000 NFT collection.

GameStop and Matt Furlong have not yet responded to Cointelegraph's request for comment.

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GameStop to drop crypto efforts as Q3 losses near $95M

December 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

GameStop to drop crypto efforts as Q3 losses near M

Coin Telegraph

The gaming company has stopped its cryptocurrency-related focuses but is seemingly still pushing ahead with its NFT and blockchain plans.

Gaming retailer GameStop says it will no longer focus any efforts on cryptocurrencies, after amounting $94.7 million in net losses in the third quarter and laying off staff from its digital assets department.

On a Dec. 7 earnings call GameStop CEO, Matt Furlong, said it “proactively minimized exposure to cryptocurrency” over the year and “does not currently hold a material balance of any token,” adding:

“Although we continue to believe there is long-term potential for digital assets in the gaming world, we have not and will not risk meaningful stockholder capital in this space.”

Earlier this year the company said it was looking at crypto, along with nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and Web3 applications, as avenues for growth calling these spaces "increasingly relevant for gamers of the future."

Going forward it will shift focus to collectibles, gaming and pre-owned items.

Its moves in the NFT space are still seemingly going ahead as it says its “also pursuing, and plan to continue to pursue, other business and strategic initiatives associated with digital assets and blockchain technology,” according to a Dec. 7 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Cointelegraph contacted GameStop to confirm that it would continue efforts on its NFT marketplace but did not receive a response.

GameStop has pushed numerous Web3-related products, the most recent being its NFT marketplace that went live on ImmutableX, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, on Oct. 31 following a July public beta.

Prior to its NFT marketplace, in May the company launched a beta self-custody crypto wallet and beta NFT marketplace on Loopring in March, Loopring is another Ethereum-based layer-2 protocol.

It also partnered with the now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX US in September aimed at bringing more customers to crypto and working together on e-commerce and online marketing initiatives. It ended ties with the exchange on Nov. 11 soon after it filed for bankruptcy.

It’s Q3 losses slightly narrowed compared to the second quarter however, which saw losses of $108.7 million. It’s also a year-on-year improvement for GameStop, which posted a $105.4 million loss in Q3 2021.

Staff cuts reportedly hit crypto department

On Dec. 5 GameStop cut multiple staff in its third round of layoffs for 2022 which Furlong confirmed in the earnings call.

Earlier reports suggested that the team working on the company's blockchain and NFT projects was the most impacted, however, Furlong did not specify where the staff cuts were concentrated during the call.

Earlier posts from people claiming to be former employees have shed some light. Daniel Williams, lead software engineer at GameStop wrote in a Dec. 5 LinkedIn post:

“Another big round of layoffs from GameStop currently in progress… E-commerce Product and Engineers... Lots of them.”

Other posts from those claiming to be affected by the cuts also appeared on LinkedIn at the time. Brandon Jenniges, a former iOS and blockchain engineer posted he “had a great time getting a deep dive into Ethereum and learning about many new things in the crypto space.”

“I and the rest of the mobile team were let go,” wrote former developer Christopher Fields.

In July, the company terminated its CFO Michael Recupero and a number of staff at its video game-focused magazine Game Informer.

GameStop doubles down on crypto amid a new partnership with FTX US

September 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

bahamas

After launching an NFT marketplace and wallet with the help of Immutable X, GameStop is continuing its push into crypto following a partnership with FTX.

Gaming retailer GameStop is partnering with United States crypto exchange FTX US to bring more customers to crypto and work together on online marketing initiatives.

In a Sept. 7 statement, the gaming retailer noted that the new partnership will introduce GameStop’s customers into the FTX ecosystem, including its marketplaces for digital assets, while also seeing the retailer become FTX’s “preferred retail partner in the United States.”

The partnership will also see certain GameStop retail stores carrying FTX gift cards. As of Aug. 31, there are 2,970 GameStop stores across the United States.

In its Q2 earnings call, GameStop CEO Matt Furlong said the new deal is aimed at establishing something “unique” in the retail space.

The deal we just announced with FTX is a by-product of our commerce and blockchain team, working hand-in-hand together to establish something unique in the retail world.

GameStop did not disclose the financial terms of the partnership in its statement.

News of the new partnership came on the same day that GameStop released its financial results for the quarter that ended July 30, 2022.

Despite GameStop reporting a nearly 4% decline in net sales to $1.14 billion in the quarter, shares in GameStop managed to rise nearly 12% in after-hours trading following the news, reaching $26.84 per share.

GameStop has significantly ramped up its Web3 efforts this year after unveiling an NFT and Web3 gaming division in January, as well as the launch of its NFT marketplace on Jul. 11 in partnership with Ethereum (ETH) scaling solution Immutable X.

Furlong noted during the earnings call that the launch of its marketplace “supports GameStop’s pursuit of long-term growth in the cryptocurrency, NFT and Web3 gaming verticals” which they expect to be increasingly important for gamers and collectors.

The marketplace is a “non-custodial, Ethereum Layer 2-based marketplace” which allows users to connect their own digital asset wallets, like the recently launched GameStop Wallet.

GameStop noted that sales attributable to its digital collectibles were $223.2 million in the quarter, representing a nearly 26% increase compared to the $177.2 million worth of sales in the prior year period.

According to DappRadar, the marketplace has seen a volume of $21.26 million traded on it since its launch. Activity on the marketplace has slowed dramatically since its launch, with only $922,350 worth of activity occurring on the marketplace within the last seven days.

Matt Furlong