GameStop’s New Boss Says Company Has a Lot of Work to Do

Mr. Cohen spoke briefly at the event, saying the company doesn’t plan on making a bunch of lofty promises or telegraphing its strategy to the competition. “You won’t find us talking a big game,” he said. The event was closed to the media. The Wall Street Journal was told of his comments from those in attendance.

The 35-year-old Chewy Inc. co-founder takes the helm of a smaller, reshaped board of directors as a majority of incumbent members resigned from the panel. The company elected five others, including departing CEO George Sherman. Three have ties to Mr. Cohen from the online pet-supplies retailer he sold to PetSmart Inc. in 2017 for $3.35 billion.

GameStop, which reports its quarterly financial results after market close, has been at the center of a social-media-fueled trading frenzy for months. The company’s share price ballooned after Mr. Cohen joined the board in January, with some investors believing the entrepreneur’s past success with the online pet-supplies retailer could help GameStop. Shares crested that month at $483 in intraday trading, but later tumbled to around $40 in mid-February and have fluctuated since.

The stock traded at $313.05 in midday trading, up 4% Wednesday and about 6,200% over the past year.

Mr. Cohen assured those listening that the company has clear goals to satisfy customers and drive shareholder value for the long-term. “We have a lot of work in front of us, and it will take time,” he said, adding that the company is trying to do something that nobody in retail has done before.

Mr. Cohen also addressed the investor community, saying the company was fortunate to have such a special group of investors holding its shares. “You guys inspire us to think bigger, fight harder and work longer each day,” he said, adding that the investors have ushered in a whole new era at GameStop.

Unlike executives at other meme-stock companies such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., GameStop leaders have mostly shied away from discussing the share price rally, which was the subject of a congressional hearing in February. On GameStop’s most recent earnings call in March, Mr. Sherman was the only company executive to speak, and he didn’t take questions from analysts. GameStop said in an April securities filing that recent stock price fluctuations have been “unrelated or disproportionate” to its operating performance.

Mr. Sherman was the only board member physically present; the other board members dialed in. About 200 people were in attendance.

Damien Browne, an accountant for a large technology company who owns about 4,000 shares in GameStop, said he drove more than three hours from his home in Austin, Texas, to attend the event.

“He’s fighting a war against people trying to destroy the company,” said the 36-year-old, referring to Mr. Cohen and short sellers, respectively.

Mr. Cohen first disclosed a position in GameStop in August and kicked off his campaign a few months later with a letter to the company’s board saying that the retailer’s bricks-and-mortar-focused business model was outdated and lagged behind the broader industry. He has since pushed for GameStop to become more technology-centric with competitive pricing, a broad selection of products, fast shipping and strong customer service. But he hasn’t shared specifics on his strategy for achieving those goals. He holds a roughly 13% stake in GameStop, a position valued at about $2.7 billion as of Tuesday.

The board shake-up is part of a sweeping overhaul of GameStop’s leadership. The company recruited former Amazon.com Inc. executive Jenna Owens as its new operating chief, and hired its first chief technology officer, Matt Francis, also a former Amazon executive.

GameStop has said Mr. Sherman, who joined the company in 2019, would step down as CEO by July 31. The retailer’s chief financial officer, chief customer officer and chief merchandising officer have all departed in recent months.

The company has been grappling with a yearslong slide in revenue, strategic missteps and long-term industry changes, as well. People are increasingly downloading games over the internet and accessing them through subscription services such as Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox Game Pass. Software developers have also been releasing more free-to-play games, eroding a source of revenue for the company.

Videogame software and hardware makers posted strong financial results over the past year as the pandemic prompted people to turn to online games for safe, social entertainment. But it also forced GameStop to temporarily—and in some cases permanently—close hundreds of its locations. More recently, shortages of the newest consoles from Sony Group Corp. and Microsoft have hampered hardware sales.

For the most recent quarter, analysts polled by FactSet expect GameStop sales to grow roughly 14% from a year ago to $1.16 billion. Analysts project the videogame retailer to narrow its per-share loss to 49 cents from $2.57 a year earlier. The company didn’t issue financial guidance but previously said sales grew 11% in the first nine weeks of the quarter.

GameStop recently teased plans to launch an initiative around nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. A spokesman declined to comment on what the program is expected to entail.

—Caitlin McCabe contributed to this article.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [email protected]