GameStop has been a turbulent brand ever since the start of the 2020s and that’s not about to change anytime soon. Now, a new development has occurred for GameStop involving its CEO, Ryan Cohen, who is now trying to get rid of the French and Canadian GameStop operations after blaming a laundry list of leftist ideologies and practices.
The statement came from Cohen, Canadian, 39, who took to Twitter/X recently and posted the sale promotion. Except, the promotion is a bit hard to take seriously since Cohen himself noted that several leftist ideologies and even high taxes are plaguing the French and Canadian GameStop branches.
The sale is actually serious. GameStop intends to pursue a sale of its branches namely GameStop Canada and Micromania France, something the company even announced in a Tuesday release of its asset evaluations.
In fact, the GameStop website itself has a more formal statement without detailing what exactly led to the decision. Ryan Cohen, on the other hand, was ahead of the press and gave out his reasons for selling GameStop in France and Canada. It appears that Cohen is bargaining a hard sell since he’s slamming GameStop’s culture, something he views as negative for the company.
Cohen is a billionaire, by the way, with a net worth of nearly $5 billion. The CEO also owns around 12 percent of GameStop and the company’s stock also helped boost Cohen’s wealth.
Repercussions of the Sale
The France and Canada branches haven’t been bought yet, but projections are already looking grim for operations in those aforementioned regions since management changes might result in restructuring and job losses.
For the record, GameStop currently has more than 200 stores in Canada and 647 stores in Europe. The brand, however, closed more than 700 stores in the last five years, mostly due to the pandemic which put immense financial pressure on physical stores and shops.
On the other hand, GameStop’s stock price soared in 2021 due to the so-called “GameStop short squeeze” which saw a retail investor frenzy that revitalized the company in some kind of digital populist revolt against hedge fund owners. Cohen, being an “activist investor” also appeared to help GameStop through his investments back in 2021.
Now, however, GameStop’s employees and stores are at risk again after its CEO’s negative outlook on the France and Canada branches. In general, GameStop’s situation for 2025 hasn’t exactly been promising and the company is still identifying which stores should be slated for closure.
