By Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Noel Randewich and Eva Mathews
(Reuters) -GameStop on Wednesday named two Amazon executives as its chief executive and chief financial officer, the biggest changes at the once-struggling videogame retailer since activist investor Ryan Cohen joined the board and launched plans to turn it into an e-commerce powerhouse.
Matt Furlong will succeed George Sherman as chief executive officer and Mike Recupero will succeed Jim Bell as chief financial officer.
Furlong, who ran Amazon’s operations in Australia, will join on June 21 while Recupero, who was chief financial officer of Amazon’s North American consumer business, will come on board on July 12, the company said.
The news comes just two months after Reuters reported that the company was looking to replace Sherman and less than six months after its shares rallied to record levels on heavy demand from retail investors.
“These appointments reflect the refreshed Board’s focus on building a technology company and investing in growth,” GameStop said in the statement.
The news also comes only a few hours after shareholders elected billionaire investor Cohen, the company’s biggest stockholder and co-founder of online pet supplies retailer Chewy, as its chairman. GameStop announced his nomination in April.
“As my dad would say, buckle up,” Cohen told shareholders earlier in the day.
The stock price, which had climbed some 8% during the day, was down more than 3% in choppy after-hours trading.
(Reporting by Eva Mathews and Svea Herbst; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Cynthia Osterman)
