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GameStopE3: What is Cohen cooking & is Kelli Durkin in the kitchen too?
27 Plays5 months ago
Reviewing Cohen's track record as both an entrepreneur & investor, while also looking at Kelli Durkin's career, to theorize & speculate possible GameStop strategy and M&A opportunity.
Image Credit: Iuliia Duzhnikova
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Transcript
Introduction and Benefits of Podcasting
00:00:01
Speaker
a a a give the shit i mag shit a the shit for shit she i mag for she so for she mag she a mag a magn a mag for magn me Hello everybody! hey What a great day. I am pumped! I'm finally doing another episode. Always makes me so happy to do these. Even though nobody listens, I listen. I like to listen to these.
00:00:42
Speaker
and Honestly, hey, personal career growth, start your own podcast and listen to yourself.
Exploring the GameStop Story
00:00:50
Speaker
It has helped me tremendously in my own career. Anyway, um great day, love that I'm doing this. I pretty much only have like over lunch break to do this. So it takes some time for me to find find time to do some prep. I have an idea for about another, I wanna do 10 total episodes at least. So who knows how long I'll continue on with this. maybe Maybe this story, the GameStop story, is something that just fascinates me and something I'm obsessed by um for much longer. Who knows? But we'll see. I'm always going to give myself that freedom.
Commitment to Projects and Language Creativity
00:01:28
Speaker
I'm going to full ass everything. So I have to, if I'm, I'm all in, I'm obsessed. I have to, I have to go all in. I have to full ass it. I'm not going to half ass something and say, this is, this is what I do. This is my identity and just force it. I'm not going to do that to you. I'm not going to force myself to be weakened at Bernie. Um, propped up here, just talking to you just because.
00:01:52
Speaker
Um, especially with a negative budget, still not getting paid. Uh, thinking that as I'm sipping this liquid death water, delicious would be a great sponsor would love, would love a partnership there. Um, but yeah, nobody's paying me. I make no money doing this. This is a passion project.
00:02:15
Speaker
So I've got got my magnificent hoodie on. Things are great. I'm a little biased, but I can't get over how incredible the word magnificent is. It's just a beautiful word. I mean, even after all these years, this is what my fourth year of doing a um Passion Project podcast under the magnificent name.
00:02:38
Speaker
Which, again, I did trademark. So I feel like that's my gift to you. I gave you this magnificent word. It's incredible. And if you think about it, it's like the word magnificent allows you to be objective on subjective topics. How incredible is that? If someone says, hey, did you like that? I mean, you could give ah an opinion. You could give an opinion or you just say it's it was magnificent. And now you're being objective.
00:03:06
Speaker
versus subjective because <unk> magnificent shit is, yeah, there's some good and bad about it. Isn't that incredible? That's an incredible ah out. like You don't want to give your opinion on something to say, yeah, it was it was magnificent. you know There was good and bad.
Language and Emotions
00:03:24
Speaker
We need more words, specific words to describe things like that.
00:03:31
Speaker
That's what I think. The French have a lot of really cool words, um unique, specific words to describe certain emotions and stuff like that. We need more of that. and i mean for was I was just having this conversation with my wife last night, kind of a similar ah example where we were talking about Well, we're actually rewatching the show You, the series You on Netflix. If you haven't seen it, it's this like serial killer type of series, and this guy stalks women. and It's the former guy from Gossip Girl. I don't know. Anyway, it's pretty good. so We decided to, for fun, rewatch the first season.
00:04:10
Speaker
and hes He was stalking this woman who caught his attention, came into his bookstore, and he was following her around for a while at this point. They kind of had a little bit of a connection. But she has no idea he's been following her. And then one night, she falls into the subway tracks, and she's in danger. And so he has to make a decision. Does he risk exposing himself? like He was there, followed her to save her life.
00:04:38
Speaker
orders he to stay hidden. So he decides to go save her and they have this incredible moment. She remembers him. You know, life provided this coincidence from her perspective, a coincidence that they reconnected.
00:04:53
Speaker
And we're saying, well, coincidence from her perspective, not a coincidence from his perspective. My wife is like, is there a word for that? And like, there should be a word for that where it's a one-sided coincidence. I thought that was a great idea. Like, maybe it's like co-incidence, like co, maybe she would cut out the co and just call it an incidence.
00:05:15
Speaker
That would be a one sided coincidence, but it's not because an incidence describes frequency of something. So it's like, shit, we need another word, people. Someone's someone has to come up with a word for that. I even asked. ah ah AI is like, is there a word for this? And it said you could just call it like a an engineered coincidence. That's lame. We're not calling anything ah an engineered or manufactured coincidence. We need a word for a one sided coincidence.
00:05:43
Speaker
And we probably need many other specific words too. So I thought that
Engagement with GameStop Community
00:05:47
Speaker
was cool. So anyway, magnificent. I gave you a specific word. That's my gift to you, to the world. If you don't want to have an opinion to say, Hey, this is magnificent. Move on with your life. It's great. What a great out. I love it. I love it. I love avoiding, um,
00:06:06
Speaker
the The drama, if you can, which kind of closing out another thought I had on the last podcast, I thought it would be funny to kind of interact with the I can't remember the name of this community on Reddit, but like the GameStop meltdown community where they just make fun of people obsessed with GameStop who are just acting irrational. And for the most part, it's good to call those people out.
00:06:32
Speaker
But I feel like something just tells me this community would not, um I guess no matter what, even if if it is received well, this little back and forth banter like, you know, we're just we're just all having fun here. We're all having fun here. But even if it's received well, it's against their community roles, I would be banned. And I wouldn't be able to see stuff they're posting. And I just kind of want that visibility. So I'm going to shut the books on that idea.
00:06:55
Speaker
didn Um, yeah. And I'm having a great day. Uh, I had my second post, uh, featured. I don't know if features are a word, but he, he showed it yet. All right. Richard Newton has daily, like 30 minute long, uh, episodes. He talks about everything GameStop and he pulls like several, like half a dozen or so different, um, posts from Reddit, each episode. I had another one of my posts on there. That was really cool. It was.
00:07:26
Speaker
I think it was my second ever post on Super Stonk. And it was cool. It was just cool to see it featured on a Richard Newton video again. um And again, if you haven't watched Richard, Richard Newton videos, they're incredible. If you're anyway interested in GameStop, you can get a daily rundown. And he does on a daily basis to still make them very interesting.
00:07:51
Speaker
He covers a wide range of topics, um keeps you up to date on the latest. And, you know, there's there's no fluff. It's not cheesy. It's it's exactly what you would want if you're in any way, shape or informed or any way, shape or form involved in GameStop. It's it's a great resource. So check that out. Shadow Richard Newton.
00:08:13
Speaker
Great, great person. and Okay. So that, I guess just a little bit about that post that he featured. It was just about, um I titled it the smoldering option spurn or something like that, where I essentially, I was just curious to see how like over the last, and it was hard to get historical data. So the the longest timeframe I could find was like just over six months where I wanted to see Where was GameStop's share price in relation to the Max Payne?
00:08:45
Speaker
So quick little detail there. If a share price of a stock closes, um, at max pain, that is where like the maximum amount of options go out of the money and expire worthless. So both calls and puts. So max pain is like this perfect balance where the maximum amount of you know calls and puts options contracts can expire worthless if the share price closes at that point.
00:09:13
Speaker
So with how, I mean GameStop Sure Price has been pretty steady for quite a while ever since, ah you know, after the frenzy of Keith Gill, Roaring Kitty, Deep Fucking Values return. And there's been a lot of, um it's been closing right at Max Payne pretty consistently, um like right and near there.
00:09:33
Speaker
So I found, I think it was, yeah, swaggystocks.com. I'm pretty sure this website. So I found the data there, took the screenshot, shared it on Super Stocks and got a lot of attention, um which is cool. My first thousand plus upvote post. Very cool. um Cool experience. Honestly, i I said this before, but I've learned so much about Reddit just since my interest in GameStop. I ah started getting engaged and involved and read it when I ah um got very ah fascinated by GameStop. So it's only been like a six month journey. But that experience has just been cool. It's been cool to understand how to engage with the community. And um if you want any tips there, if you are fascinated with GameStop and want to get involved with the community, I would say it was great for me. My journey throughout that was starting with deep fucking value community ah because there's
00:10:29
Speaker
They don't require any karma, ah no karma requirements gives you ah an opportunity, a smaller audience to just kind of test some of your theories. And I remember coming in strong and I just laid it all out here. Here's everything I'm thinking. Here's all the connections. Oh my God. I'm going to get so much attention. I figured it all out. I'm going to be on news channels. I think you got like 40 upvotes and the first response was somebody waving at me with a covered in tin foil and it was hilarious.
00:11:00
Speaker
ah So, what was best about that is getting your theories challenged and evolving them. Always evolving theories is so important ah when you're looking at this stuff, whether it be crazy cryptic messages and memes and Twitter posts and stuff like that, or whether it be any other investment or any anything you're pursuing.
00:11:20
Speaker
you You do your research on something. You develop an opinion um or an idea about something. You want to always evolve those things. So I think Reddit has been great for helping me do that. So through that evolution, started with the fucking value. Then I got enough. I think you need like a thousand karma for GME community. So started posting there. There's different flavors, different things that you need to post with. There's like each one has a little bit of a different audience.
00:11:50
Speaker
And I'd say GME is pretty wide open. As long as it's like in the ballpark of being related to GME, it's received pretty well. So quality is really good over there. Then once you get up to what it's like 4,800 karma, then you can post on Superstomp, which has the biggest audience. And a lot of those posts can be kind of intimidating. There's a lot of um there's a lot of research that goes into those posts. So a lot of effort.
00:12:18
Speaker
And yeah, so that that's been cool. If you have a lot of really good content and get up to super stonk, that's where you can put that stuff. And then along the way, I've mentioned GameStop underscore enthusiasts community, private community has been really fun. And I love using that one for if I just want to drum up a quick conversation, post a quick thought, that has been a great outlet for those types of discussions.
00:12:43
Speaker
So, that's my Reddit journey. i'll I'll try to stop bringing it up every time, but I just thought it was cool. And I'll circle back to the other Meltdown community. Hey, free free open open invite if anybody does want.
00:12:59
Speaker
want to troll them and say check out this idiot. He's talking about GameStop on a podcast and then link my poopisode episode and troll them with that trap. I think that'd still be hilarious. So free invite there. And also if you're involved in that community, hey, it's all good. Make fun of people, call people out when they're being unhinged, but still be I don't know, just freaking like love your neighbor type of shit. You know what I mean? Like, can't we all just like, we can call each other out when we're being mad and nuts, but let's come together event, like no matter what and then let's just come together. Who gives a shit? We have differences in opinions. Everybody does, but we can learn to appreciate each other. All right. Off my podium of righteousness after that one.
Ryan Cohen's Impact on GameStop
00:13:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:45
Speaker
So this episode I'm really pumped about. The last episode was really tough. Really tough because it just like it was so complicated. It'll probably be the longest episode I'll ever do. um It was tough because a lot of those mechanics and strategies and all the different parties involved with the Wall Street and everything there was just that was new information for me. So it's hard for me to talk about stuff that I don't fully know too well. And I'm not saying I i know this subject about Ryan Cohen's history and his track record and where his potential strategies could be. um But it's more natural for me to talk about I think this stuff makes way more sense.
00:14:27
Speaker
And it's ultimately, this is probably what my bold thesis for GameStop will be centered around. There's a lot here I love to see that is incredible. I think is incredible for the outlook of GameStop. So that's what I'm going to focus on is who is Ryan Cohen?
00:14:44
Speaker
What has Ryan Cohen done in his life, and what could he do for GameStop um ah on top of what he's already done for GameStop? So let's just go through it. We're going to start with, everybody knows this, Ryan Cohen founded Chewy back in 2011. And that was a great opportunity. He saw a gap in the online pet retail market. He launched Chewy. The brand was like, this is a personalized, customer-focused e-commerce platform.
00:15:13
Speaker
So that was the brand and it was very successful. And it's, I think it's cool that it was so successful just thinking about what happened. I guess a couple of things that happened before that. One of them was before Chewy, he actually attempted to to launch it as some sort of like online ge jewelry, jewelry, uh, website and it didn't take off. So he failed fast on that one, squashed that project, saw this opportunity, um, and pet in the pet retail market.
00:15:44
Speaker
and went with Chewy and it was extremely successful. But even before Chewy, it's it's not the first type of company that tried um to pursue this and and failed. ah Pets dot.com.
00:15:56
Speaker
So pets dot.com, Amazon, think about that. We're talking about a pet, uh, online pet company that Amazon was heavily invested in. it and They had 50% 54% ownership of pets dot.com and they were investing heavily in a lot of online retail ventures back, back then in the you know late nineties, early two thousands, like right around the the dot.com era. So right around there.
00:16:24
Speaker
and heavily invested in pets dot.com and heavily invested in a bunch of other online retailers. But pets dot.com failed to achieve profit. It collapsed a year later ah during the dot-com bust in the year 2000. So that was fascinating. It was fascinating for me to see that Amazon invested pets dot.com. It was a failed investment, failed ah venture and they collapsed. They no longer exist. And then 11 years later, Brian Cohen's like, hey, there's an opportunity there, does very well. And then he sells it. He sells Chewy to PetSmart for $3.35 billion dollars six years later in 2017.
00:17:08
Speaker
So, Amazon failed. They couldn't do it. We know what Amazon is today, is so they figured out their shit. um But Ryan Cohen figured this one out, and he turned a huge fucking profit, turned him into a billionaire, a multi-billionaire, which is awesome. I mean, what, he was around 30ish at the time? That's crazy.
00:17:27
Speaker
So yeah, obviously he his leadership at Chewy allowed them to grow very rapidly. And just that customer centric approach, I think has always been his um one of his recipes of success.
00:17:42
Speaker
So set them apart, he was able to sell for $3.35 billion dollars to PetSmart Incredible. Okay, so there you have it. That's a start. Now he's a multi-billionaire. It's 2017. He has a reputation. Everyone's wondering, what's your next move? What's your next move? um And I think it took him a while to realize that. I mean, right away after he sold ah Chewy,
00:18:06
Speaker
He started making some personal investments. ah He invested in Apple like almost immediately after he got all this cash. Here's 2017. You're what, late 20s, early 30s, however old he was. He's got a few billion dollars. What's he do? He throws it all on Apple. Not all of it, but a lot of it.
00:18:28
Speaker
um His position grew to like 550 million um over the next three years, but he put a lot of cash on Apple and he thought of them as the king of the general jungle. um They're a leading innovator. So how could you argue with them? Especially, I mean, even today, I mean, maybe there's some discussion, but Apple is Apple. That has to be a good investment. And how much has Apple grown since 2017?
00:18:55
Speaker
Wow. Okay. Um, I know they, they obviously have had some growth. It's fricking Apple, but I figured they've just been a giant for a long time. So I'm pretty ignorant to to think that, but another incredible investment by Ryan Cohen in 2017. I mean, just looking even at the end of 2017, Apple sitting at about 38 bucks.
00:19:19
Speaker
He ends up dumping millions of dollars, newfound multi-billion or millions of dollars in Apple at around, you know, 40 bucks, we'll call it. Guru's position, what'd I say? Guru's position to like half a billy, just north of half a billy um by 2020. And in 2020, Apple was at right around 115 bucks. So going from 40 to 115 bucks,
00:19:46
Speaker
on just, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. That's pretty fucking cool. And today it's almost double that. It's like 230 bucks. So wow. All right. Wow. Okay. So he's a great leader. Um, he led Chewy into a huge, huge profit into a very successful company and he's an incredible investor. And you might say incredible investor. He just threw a bunch of money on Apple. If I had a bunch of money I didn't need,
00:20:16
Speaker
I would throw it on Apple too. That's probably something I would say. So you might have a shared response. um So I just think that's crazy. ah Yeah, I didn't think he would have like multi-bagged so much.
00:20:30
Speaker
Okay. So what are some of his other investments? Great, incredibly successful investment on Apple. Cool. What else? Wells Fargo. He started investing in March of 2018. Um, he grew that investment to about a hundred million around that time in 2018. He apparently was started to build his position towards the end of Chewy, like 2016 ish.
00:20:55
Speaker
And he built it all the way until 2020. So what's interesting about that, he was known for frequently trying to advise leadership and like influence direction and strategy as an activist investor. The only issue with that is when you have ownership over 5% of a company, um you have to file a 13D if you'd like to be an activist investor and influence and guide strategy and leadership.
00:21:23
Speaker
And he never did that. um He did not do that. And as a result, he was fined a million bucks, which now thinking about this is multi-billionaire. Maybe that was strategic. He strategically didn't want to file because he didn't want to bring a lot of attention to it. He was probably just trying to check the temperature and see how, um you know, before you make things formal and official and try to like be an active activist investor and guide strategy with leadership.
00:21:52
Speaker
um How will they receive this information? Maybe it learns a little bit more about their business stuff. So maybe that was strategic. I would think it would be. I mean, it's not an idiot. I don't think he just, oh shoot, I forgot to file that one. Oh man, that's going to cost me a million bucks. I think he just was like, ah,
00:22:12
Speaker
I think he didn't like what he saw and he just ate the fine. um And that was his way of doing, it was a million dollar investment in the research for him to pull out his investment in Wells Fargo, which through an ace HSR filing in January of 2021, it was revealed he no longer had his 100 million dollar investment in Wells Fargo. So hey, I love to see that. um I call that an incredible investor too. We'll give him another point there.
00:22:40
Speaker
So he keeps showing us he's an incredible investor. He knows when to go in and he knows when to go out. And maybe let's look at how Wells Fargo's price changed over that time period, 2017 through 2020. And yeah, it looks like it stayed pretty flat actually. What's interesting about this, when you look at Wells Fargo stock, 2017 was right around 55 bucks, you know, floated up and down around from there. And then it was revealed in a filing In January of 2020, he was out. So he must've pulled out just before then. So looking at November, December, there's a spike up to 55 bucks. So it's almost like he got back to his cost spaces and he was like, I'm done. I'm going to get nowhere this leadership or whatever else he's sized, like I'm pulling out. And what happens after he pulled out his investment? Wow. 2020 was rough for Wells Fargo. It just dipped really hard. So it looks like a bullet dodge.
00:23:38
Speaker
It dumped as low as 21 bucks. That would have been over a 50% loss. Wow. So he got out, dodged a bullet. Hey, another huge, another huge, uh, um, you know, point towards being a great investor on Cohen's behalf. Holy shit. Okay. I'm going to keep building this up. There's other investments he's doing, um, that are very significant.
00:24:06
Speaker
And you might be wondering, why do we care how well he is as an investor? I'll get to it. Just bear with me. All right. I'll just tell you. Um, yeah, I'll just tell you. So, and we're going to keep going after I tell you, but and it's not a huge secret. I explained this and, uh, what in the first episode, Ryan Cohen, um,
00:24:25
Speaker
ah became CEO at the end of last year, September of 2023. And in December GameStop, they implemented a new investment policy that allowed Ryan Cohen to invest on GameStop's behalf. So that's pretty fucking significant. He can invest in a wide range of securities, including stocks. So that's why we're curious to understand How well did he perform as an investor in the past? Because if he has the ability to invest on GameStop's behalf, that's very interesting to know to know about. I mean, how well is he going to do? Let's look at his track record and find out.
00:25:08
Speaker
So, so far he he appears to be a very fucking savvy investor. He knows how to see opportunity and he knows how to bail an opportunity. That's ultimately not there. He he gives it a time period. It's not there. Get out. Good for him. He knows how to fail. He knows how to fail before he fails really bad.
00:25:29
Speaker
Okay, that's significant. Okay, so next investment, and I like how we're going. I think I mentioned this if I didn't, and I'm repeating that, whatever. So the last episode is just focused on Ryan Kitty, Deep Fucking Value, Keith Gill, and what are his moves? What's he seeing? What's his strategy? So this is solely Ryan Cohen and GameStop the company.
00:25:50
Speaker
What could they do to transform? This is part of it. so Ryan Cohen, ah another investment. This one, Alibaba in October of 2022. Looking at Alibaba late 2022, such an incredible, interesting history with Alibaba. I'll spare you from that one. um Maybe that'll be a separate episode.
00:26:11
Speaker
Maybe not. um But he had a significant investment in Alibaba. It's kind of hard to get information on this one. um It just said he had hundreds of millions invested in Alibaba towards the end of 2022. And he publicly urged the company to refocus on some of its business practices like core e-commerce and stuff like that. So he is trying to influence and be an activist investor, but you need a significant amount of money invested in Alibaba to even get to that 5% threshold. I'll figure out the calculation and let you guys know. but
00:26:49
Speaker
He's nowhere there even with hundreds of millions, a huge company. They're like the Amazon of China. um So yeah, he was activists over there, but not enough to need to file for it. But what's cool about his timing with Alibaba is he invested this ah reportedly hundreds of millions of dollars in late 2022. And what's what is significant about that timing is late Q4 2022, Alibaba hit a low of 63 bucks. And the last time Alibaba's share price was that low was seven years earlier.
00:27:26
Speaker
So it was a historic mark for Alibaba. And then what's fascinating about this timing is fast forward to January, just three months, three months go by it. Alibaba goes up to $110. So it's hundreds of million dollar investment nearly just doubled. I mean, come on, come on. That's crazy.
00:27:50
Speaker
Now, who knows? Maybe he, there's no reports he ever divested um from Alibaba. So maybe he sold, he got a double bagger, he sold and he walked away. Maybe he's still over there. Who knows? But that timing is, that is awesome. So, okay. Another huge point for Ryan Cohen, the investor.
00:28:12
Speaker
and the the businessman. I think we've seen enough on the business side with Chewy and GameStop at this point. So then he invests in Nordstrom, quarter one, 2023. And what I love about this investment is when you think about what he did with Chewy um as an entrepreneur, I mean, focusing on the customer experience, that is Nordstrom. Nordstrom is like the OG of customer experience.
00:28:37
Speaker
Uh, they're, they're successful clothing retailer because if you go buy something at Nordstrom, if there's any issue with it, you're going to have a great experience getting that issue resolved. That's, that's Nordstrom and they're famous for that. Um, like one of their famous stories too, is there was this old guy who I call him an old guy because he, he like bought some tires 20 plus years ago at this place that It was actually a building that Nordstrom took over. So it used to be this like tire shop. Now it's a Nordstrom. He went to return his tires and Nordstrom's like, whatever. Yeah, you can return to your tires here still. We don't give a shit. And it's just like, it's one of those famous stories about customer service that people still present on today.
00:29:26
Speaker
So Nordstrom is incredible and that's kind of who Ryan Cohen is as an entrepreneur, as a businessman. That's the type of experience he wants with his companies. um so that's aligned with with um you know, his his approach and he's investing there. So he's a top five non insider shareholder. I didn't really get information of how much money he has invested in Nordstrom, um but he does invest through RC Ventures and he is an activist. So he does try to guide and influence leadership. So he's very interested in Nordstrom. and I like to see that. I think it's a great company focused on customer service and that's on brand for Ryan Cohen.
00:30:07
Speaker
Okay, so those are all the investments I'm going to call out. So now, this is fascinating. Anyway, I just keep getting fascinated. The more and more I get obsessed by GameStop and Cohen and all these related parties. It's crazy. This is crazy. So Ryan Cohen is a great investor. He's a great businessman. And let's just like focus on his involvement in GameStop. So now we're getting very specific.
00:30:31
Speaker
So starting with, he came in to GameStop back in, and when it was this, 2020? And it was right after Michael Burry um had a swing at it. Michael Burry, I don't know, Barry Burry? I'm saying that weird. Anyway, just pretend like I'm saying it right. So Michael Burry came in and um he he i mean He saw an opportunity for a potential transformation. He kind of set the stage for Cohen. so Cohen initially invested in GameStop in 2020. He had a 9% stake. um and This was his investment in GameStop. It was through RC Ventures. and He did that in August of 2020.
00:31:15
Speaker
And he increased his stake to 10% and had to file a 13D for the 9 million 1,000 shares. Or sorry, yeah, 13D. So he was an activist investor. He did the filing. And um here we go. What's going to happen? ah We kind of know what happened. But then in 2020, he becomes the chairman. He continues to influence and reshape GameStop's leadership and direction.
00:31:42
Speaker
um He brought in a few new board members as well, so he's really trying to influence and reshape GameStop from the top down, continues to invest more and more and more. i became again he He became a CEO in 2023, so September 2023, he's been a CEO of GameStop for just to like about a year, just over a year.
00:32:04
Speaker
as of September, one full year. And he holds 36.84 million shares of GameStop today. That's as of May, 2024. It's the last time we we saw his position, um which is $765 million, dollars which is kind of interesting. That's how much money, like if you were to sell today, um like around 20 bucks, that's how much money that would equate to. So,
00:32:32
Speaker
Yeah, three quarters of a billion dollars invested in GameStop. And his ownership is now down, I don't know, around eight percent or so because of the the recent dilution. um But yeah, I just think that's interesting because Burry could have made like his three million shares could have been worth almost that 750 million if he just held on for like six more months or four months or whatever. Anyway, funny. OK.
00:32:59
Speaker
mean So talked about the GameStop new investment policy and how significant that is. So one of the first things he did as a CEO just a couple months later became CEO in September and then December of 2023, they implement this new investment policy allows Ryan Cohen invest on GameStop's behalf. And at the time they had like a GameStop had around 800 million in cash or something. So even at that point, if I'm looking at Ryan Cohen's track record as an investor, I'm thinking, holy shit,
00:33:30
Speaker
he could really do something with that cash. But since then, there have been, oh, just a few offerings and GameStop now has 400, 400, they have right around $4.5 billion dollars in cash. So as of the latest earnings release, that cash is still sitting there and Ryan Cohen has not leveraged this new investment policy.
00:33:54
Speaker
So I would be very um happy if I'm invested in GameStop to see this investment policy back when GameStop had 800 million in cash.
00:34:06
Speaker
Now I'm seeing this track record and his success and everything. And I'm seeing foreign, right? Just north of $4.5 billion in cash. And he has this card he hasn't played yet. That's wild. That is wild. So if he continues his track, I mean, that's the thing. This whole thing is speculative. We can't predict the future. We don't know if he's going to continue his success, but if he does continue his success and does continue to see these opportunities and buy in at the right time and get out at the right time,
00:34:37
Speaker
if he invests in like stocks and that might be perceived very, um not not so well, it might be seen as a little flippant, a little irrational to kind of do something like that. But if he does it and if he grows that 4.5 billion in cash um and instant almost instantly gets a return and grows their their cash position,
00:35:05
Speaker
i mean a lot of people I mean, typically you would think you this company's got a lot of cash. They're going to invest in a new product or service or whatever and wait for that investment to to return profit over time. That could take, what, four years is usually what you weigh you wait for profit after four years and on an investment. So something like this, you could be seeing billions of dollars returned in a much shorter time period. If he continues his track record, that's a big if.
00:35:35
Speaker
But that is just fascinating for me. Okay, so there's a lot. There's a lot he could focus on. He could, as far as transforming GameStop the company, ah strategic M and&A, m and um and like mergers and acquisition opportunity.
00:35:53
Speaker
to expand who they are as a company. And going back to that pets dot.com example, I keep thinking about that, where Amazon was just investing in all these companies because they wanted to expand their footprint in e-commerce. So all these specialized companies like pets dot.com and other e-commerce companies in these very like niche industries They're investing all over the place, trying to establish their um you know their their foundation of what Amazon is today and build that up. So heavily invest in pets dot.com. um yeah so Yeah, they could try to create the same infrastructure in that same way if um if they want to, if they want to be more than just GameStop, e-commerce for video games and ex accessories.
00:36:42
Speaker
What else could they add to that? And it doesn't have to stay in the same category. It can expand. It can be something much bigger. um Just like Amazon did, they have the cash for it. They could have more cash tomorrow. Who knows?
00:36:55
Speaker
I think that's interesting. So you know strategic M and&A activity to expand their their offerings. ca They can also reinvent the brick and mortar experience. And I think of ah think of Nordstrom and how great of an experience it is to go into Nordstrom and that you know what you're getting. You're getting really good quality clothing that when you try it on, you're going to feel great about yourself.
00:37:21
Speaker
And there's you know you're going to get your clothes tailored to to your body. It's just going to be a great experience. And if there's an issue, you can return it no questions asked. So Nordstrom type of, you could have like the nord Nordstrom experience of GameStop. Expand those offerings. I keep thinking of like Best Buy. I mean, GameStop was a target. And compared to Radio Shack for so long,
00:37:46
Speaker
Best Buy in my opinion, I mean, not thrown shade, but like Best Buy is just like a huge Radio Shack. I know they have a lot more going for them. They often, I mean, they sell a ton of shit across like all of the appliances and electronics, but they probably, I mean,
00:38:04
Speaker
does most of their money like profit does it rely on um protection service or so certain like prescription subscription service protection plans shit like that I don't know anyway I just I don't know. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. GameStop could essentially do what Best Buy is doing today, and Best Buy is a thriving company, apparently, according to their share price. so Hey, just calling it out, you know just speculating here, just having fun. Just one dude over here talking to himself, having a little fun.
GameStop's Strategic Partnerships and Future
00:38:38
Speaker
um and Another thing, so yeah, they could develop new products or services. um Yeah, so they they have the potential. They could create the infrastructure to compete with major e-commerce players like aba Amazon. That's what I'm trying to say. um Four and a half billion cash gives you a lot of options, especially when you can grow that, investing it appropriately.
00:38:59
Speaker
Wow. Okay. So we know most recently GameStop had PSA partnership, depending on when you're listening to this. I guess you should mention this at the beginning of the episodes. It is October 2024. So PSA partnership did happen. We're rounding out third quarter for GameStop.
00:39:18
Speaker
um So yeah, I mean the earnings for Q3 will be interesting because this partnership happened during Q3. Who knows, maybe there were some investments that happened during Q3 too that we'll find out about. But yeah, this is a collaboration with the professional sports authenticator and trading cards, collectibles, gaming, um and gaming sectors. So which, okay, what's fascinating about this one to me, I didn't know how big of a business that was.
00:39:46
Speaker
but the trading card industry is projected to grow, from it's like right around 14 billion-ish today, projected to grow to 25.9 billion by 2028. So that's like 2x growth in four years.
00:40:02
Speaker
And GameStop's positioning themselves as, like, that's where you go. You want to grade your cards? That's where you go. You want to buy graded cards? Go to GameStop. Otherwise, it was, like, PSA. I think they would, like, have booths at conventions and, like, they had a website or something. But this is way different. People know about GameStop. I mean, I never wanted to grade cards before, but now I do.
00:40:24
Speaker
I called my mom and said, hey, do you still have that box of old Pokemon cards from when I was in middle school or grade school or whatever I was? Because I remember having a Charizard in there. And I feel like that could be pretty cool to get graded and see how much it it's worth. um Anyway, so I'm going to get some shit graded. Never in my life would have wanted to do that.
00:40:46
Speaker
So that'll be interesting to see how much just that that first partnership brings in. We're talking about all these other things GameStop could do with this cache and that Ryan Cohen would want to do with the cache. So I don't know. It's very interesting. It's very interesting people. Okay. So this is, I was kind of wondering if I should squeeze this in.
00:41:11
Speaker
And I'm at what, 46 minutes here? Why not? I think this is the time to squeeze it in. Cause when else am I going to do this? This is all about infrastructure and what Cohen's going to look at and what potential acquisition targets he could be or, you know, look forward. Like what type of ultimately what's his end goal? What's his strategy? with What's his dream? I would guess his dream would be to, he would want to be the next Amazon, just have kick-ass customer service and all of these different industries.
00:41:40
Speaker
um I would guess. So let's let's think about that. And where I'm going with this next point, little bit tinfoil-y. Little bit tinfoil-y. Maybe not. Maybe not. But I will say this in a deep fucking value meme video. um Everyone knows about it if you know anything about this. There is a Missy Elliott video where he had an emoji timeline.
00:42:05
Speaker
There's an emoji, like, emojis go across the screen. There's like 35, 36 emojis or something like that. And all these emojis tie back to tweets. Nearly all of them, I should say. I think there's like a few unaccounted for. And some of them tie it back to like deleted tweets even. But they all tie back, all the ones that are accounted for, tie back to either Ryan Cohen tweets or Kelly Durkin tweets.
00:42:30
Speaker
I'll pause for dramatic effect because some people might not know who Kelly Durkin is. So thank you. Okay. Okay. So Roaring Kitty is pointing us to Kelly Durkin in that video. Why else would he show those emojis that link back to her tweets? It's not just one like set of emojis tied to one. tweet There's a couple, there's a couple tied to two different tweets of Kelly Durkin.
00:42:54
Speaker
So who is Kelly Durkin? We're going to go down this path next, and this might tie back into potential strategy with Ryan Cohen and with GameStop. So buckle up for some tinfoil fun. All right. So Kelly Durkin, a key figure in customer service. Hey, that's kind of sounds on brand, kind of sounds on brand, ah what Ryan Cohen has achieved um in his career with Chewy, what he's achieving with GameStop today.
00:43:24
Speaker
but you might want to achieve with GameStop in the future across several different industries. um So yeah, so who is she? So she started as a VP of Customer Service at Shoei and she worked there from 2015 through 2019. So she stayed there a couple of years after Cohen sold GameStop, but that's how they know each other. They worked together for What was that, four years? I thought she worked there longer. I thought she worked there like eight years. I'll have to double check that one there. But anyway, VP of customer service at Shoei. I'm sure selling GameStop was very good for her as well.
00:44:02
Speaker
So I know, we yeah we know obviously she worked very closely with Cohen um and played that very important role of building that customer first approach which allowed Cohen to sell Chewy for so much to pets smart. So then after that, after Chewy, she she went to Arteza became, she was a CEO of Arteza for a year from 2020 to 2021. So very brief time period, not sure why it was so brief being a CEO of Arteza,
00:44:30
Speaker
But Arteza is an e-commerce art supply company focused on scaling the customer service model. OK, now we're seeing a very niche e-commerce business just focused on art supply. OK, so we have pet supply and now we have art supply. Interesting. So she kind of led strategy there and has a very good understanding of what Arteza is after one year. Very brief. She just needed one year there. Then she goes to GameStop.
00:45:00
Speaker
And another brief stint, one year, 2021 to 2022, she was the SVP of customer service, GameStop, joined under Cohen's leadership. And yeah, I mean, she was tasked with replicating Chewie's customer-centric approach. That's what she does. That's what she's good at. So that's great for GameStop. It's like, great. Kelly's going to come in, sprinkle her magic on GameStop.
Conclusion and Future Topics
00:45:24
Speaker
Maybe we'll be able to rebuild this thing the way we did Chewie. So brief stint, and then left.
00:45:30
Speaker
Okay. One year stint. What's going on? What's her next opportunity? How long did that last? Oh, it's another year. So then she becomes VP of customer service at the farmer's dog, farmer's dog. Great. We, we bought some food from farmer's dog for a while. They, they have really good customer service. I will say that, but we, we went somewhere else. Anyway, she was there from 2022 to 2023. And, um,
00:45:54
Speaker
Again, another good customer-focused company. I think they send you flowers for your dog, something like that, kind of like what Chewy does. Anyway, um so brief stint. And then, okay, 2022 to 2023. Now her new role, she's still in this role today, VP of customer experience at Carewell. So it's been about a year. I wonder if she's going to move on. It's it's very interesting.
00:46:18
Speaker
um And this focuses on improving customer service in the caregiving sector. And that's what CareWell is. ah it's It's for caregiving caregivers, so another niche e-commerce business.
00:46:32
Speaker
What's interesting too is back in February of 2024, Carewell raised $24.7 million in fund funding and several former Chewy execs came over to Carewell. Samantha Rasner, Jason Klinghoffer, and Mike Pacificos are what I have down in my notes. So you're looking at a company that's kind of getting infiltrated by um the Ryan Cohen mindset, the Chewy mindset.
00:47:01
Speaker
establishing culture that kind of meets Cohen's vision. Interesting. I mean, if you're going to acquire a company when you want it to be ah a company that's aligned with your vision, just calling it out. Maybe it's a potential M and&A. Maybe all these companies are. Maybe there's a bigger strategy here to build up an infrastructure um to compete with Amazon. I mean, that's what some people are saying.
00:47:25
Speaker
I'm just saying that's what some people else are saying. So there you go. We did it. Uh, I said earlier in this episode, this the last episode would be the longest one ever. This one matches that. It looks like 53 minutes. So had a lot of fun with this one is much easier to talk to. I think this is the most important one, looking at potential strategy and areas of opportunity. But that's what I got for listening. to Next one. Here's that shitty stale rap for you. a shit
00:47:56
Speaker
Well, I'm magnificent, kind of on top of it Sort of crushing through four quarters, not quite right in the border Just an average bitch who gonna be