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GameStop shares were up more than 1,500% this month. The rally has inflated the company’s market value to more than $ 20 billion.
GameStop Corp.’s Frantic Journey changes the fate of its leaders, at least on paper.
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Top executives at the video game retailer have seen the value of their assets grow by about $ 1.3 billion in the wake of the Reddit-fueled trading frenzy that saw GameStop stock rise by more than 1,500% this month, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer George Sherman holds the greatest stake among the company’s senior employees and it is expected that shares worth more than $ 700 million will be granted in the coming years. Chief Financial Officer James Belll has a stake of approximately $ 170 million, while Chief Customer Service Officer Frank Hamlin has a stake of more than $ 120 million.
Some of the compensation is tied to the company’s performance, and for executives to receive these payments, GameStop is required to maintain its stock price. The rally has inflated GameStop’s market value to over $ 20 billion, from $ 1.3 billion in fines for 2020, even as the retailer’s revenue fell 22% in the last fiscal year and the company lost $ 471 million.
A GameStop representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
GameStop is one of the companies that has been gaining in value recently as investors continue a relentless wave of short stock purchases promoted on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum. While the focus of the forum’s campaign has been on hedge funds, some of the more outspoken Reddit operators have portrayed their efforts as a populist stance against intergenerational inequality and bailouts of the richest.