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Gamestop has fired its CEO, Matt Furlong, who was responsible for launching the company’s move to non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
According to a June 7 filing, Furlong was fired and Ryan Cohen — a billionaire investor highly respected by memstock traders after GameStop’s notorious short squeeze — was appointed to the position of executive chairman. Minutes after the company announced Furlong’s dismissal, the new GameStop tweeted a cryptic message saying “Not for long.”
Not for long
— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) June 7, 2023
The company did not give a reason for Furlong’s dismissal. However, according to an 8-K filing with the SEC on June 9, 2021, Furlong’s contract specifies 24 months of permanent employment. In parallel, Furlong stepped down as director of the company, reducing the size of the board to five people.
fun facts:
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 (@vickilketta) June 8, 2023
The news came alongside Gamestop’s first-quarter earnings report, in which the game company reported earnings per share (EPS) that missed market expectations by more than 133%.
The company’s share price has dropped to $21, currently down 19% after business hours, according to Google Finance data.
Furlong joined GameStop as its CEO in June 2021, five months after the meme frenzy that saw GameStop stock jump 3,000% from $17.25 to $500 in one month.
GameStop first launched its NFT marketplace in June 2022 as market interest in NFTs began to wane. GameStop later added NFT support for blockchain gaming in its marketplace, made possible through its partnership with the Web3 gaming platform and Ethereum ImmutableX layer 2 scaling solution.
The company’s debut in the NFT market was well received, with nearly $2 million in sales within the first 24 hours of the platform’s launch. However, things quickly went awry. By August, daily market volumes were hovering around the $4,000 mark — a 99.8% drop from the frantic opening day.
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In December, Gamestop announced that it would no longer be focusing any serious efforts on cryptocurrencies or NFTs, following a lousy third-quarter earnings announcement that saw the company pile up $94.7 million in net losses and start laying off staff.
Despite these claims, GameStop recently announced a partnership with Australian blockchain game developer Illuvium to unveil a collection of 20,000 NFTs.
GameStop and Matt Furlong have not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
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