WSJ : GameStop’s New Billionaire Investor Pushes for Digital Sales, Fewer Stores

GameStop’s New Billionaire Investor Pushes for Digital Sales, Fewer Stores
Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen holds a nearly 10% stake in the videogame retailer

Shoppers are spending more than ever on videogames, and one of GameStop Corp.’s GME 9.54% biggest investors says the struggling retailer should get a bigger piece of the pie.
Chewy Inc. CHWY 2.13% co-founder Ryan Cohen, who holds a nearly 10% stake in GameStop through his investment firm RC Ventures LLC, is pushing the company to conduct a strategic review after he says private talks with the board yielded little progress. Mr. Cohen, who first disclosed a position in GameStop in August, holds a stake valued at roughly $79 million based on current trading levels.
In a letter sent Monday to the company’s board, Mr. Cohen said GameStop’s bricks-and-mortar-centric business model is outdated and lags behind the broader industry. He is urging the company to reduce the number of physical stores, focus on improving e-commerce and explore other tech-driven opportunities in areas such as esports, mobile gaming and game streaming.
Read the Full Letter to GameStop’s Board
Document attached

Based in Grapevine, Texas, GameStop is “one of the most shorted stocks in the entire market, which speaks volumes about investors’ lack of confidence in the current leadership team’s approach,” according to the letter, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “We want GameStop’s leaders to do their jobs and implement a strategy for bringing the Company into the 21st century.”

A GameStop representative confirmed in a statement late Monday that the company received Mr. Cohen’s letter, adding that it shares his goal of developing a plan in the best interests of all shareholders. The company said it extended multiple offers for Mr. Cohen to join the board, believing his “acumen and guidance would complement” viewpoints on the panel but he turned them down.
For more than three decades, GameStop was a go-to destination in malls and shopping centers for buying games, systems and accessories. The company has faced stronger competition from other retailers lately, including Amazon.com Inc., AMZN 0.07% and customers are increasingly downloading games online instead of buying them in stores. The coronavirus pandemic has hastened that trend.
As consumer spending on gaming has more than doubled, GameStop revenue has plummeted, falling to $6.4 billion in fiscal 2019 from $9.6 billion in fiscal 2011.
The company has closed stores and halted experiments, including a failed run at bricks-and-mortar smartphone retailing. It has grappled with high executive turnover with Chief Executive George Sherman, who joined the company last year, being the fifth person to hold the position since November 2017. GameStop tried to sell itself in 2018 but early last year said it failed to secure a buyer and would continue as a stand-alone company.
GameStop now has more than 5,000 stores across 10 countries and owns Game Informer, a print and online videogame publication.
Mr. Cohen recommended ending leases at underperforming stores and closing nonessential operations in Europe and Australia to pay for tech improvements, such as revamping Gamestop’s online store, according to the letter sent to the board. Mr. Cohen, who isn’t requesting a seat on GameStop’s board, said the company needs to better leverage its reputation as a videogame specialist in the face of mounting competition from the likes of Walmart Inc. WMT 1.26% and Target Corp. TGT 1.41%
The 35-year-old Canadian-born entrepreneur has experience in tech with Chewy, an e-commerce pet-food business he co-founded and later sold for $3.35 billion to PetSmart Inc. in 2017. Chewy went public in 2019 and today has a market capitalization of nearly $26 billion.
GameStop has said it is focusing on paying down debt and growing its e-commerce operations in its turnaround effort.
The company’s share price has more than doubled since Mr. Cohen first disclosed holdings in GameStop, a position he began building in the spring, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The retailer has faced pressure from its shareholders before.

Permit Capital Enterprise Fund LP and Hestia Capital Partners LP ran a successful proxy fight and seated two representatives on the company’s board earlier this year.
Mr. Cohen said he doesn’t consider himself an activist investor and acknowledged GameStop has benefited as the health crisis has led to increased demand for videogames. The recent launch of next-generation consoles from Sony Corp. SNE 0.81% and Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.33% is expected to bolster the company’s sales this holiday season and beyond.

Sales boost aside, Mr. Cohen said it would be “faulty and shortsighted” to assume the company is in good shape for the long term, according to the letter.

NYT : Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Progra

Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program
The president was dissuaded from moving ahead with a strike by advisers who warned that it could escalate into a broader conflict in his last weeks in office.

WASHINGTON — President Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks. The meeting occurred a day after international inspectors reported a significant increase in the country’s stockpile of nuclear material, four current and former U.S. officials said on Monday.

A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike. The advisers — including Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the acting defense secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — warned that a strike against Iran’s facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Any strike — whether by missile or cyber — would almost certainly be focused on Natanz, where the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Wednesday that Iran’s uranium stockpile was now 12 times larger than permitted under the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump abandoned in 2018. The agency also noted that Iran had not allowed it access to another suspected site where there was evidence of past nuclear activity.

Mr. Trump asked his top national security aides what options were available and how to respond, officials said.

After Mr. Pompeo and General Milley described the potential risks of military escalation, officials left the meeting believing a missile attack inside Iran was off the table, according to administration officials with knowledge of the meeting.

Mr. Trump might still be looking at ways to strike Iranian assets and allies, including militias in Iraq, officials said. A smaller group of national security aides had met late Wednesday to discuss Iran, the day before the meeting with the president.

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The episode underscored how Mr. Trump still faces an array of global threats in his final weeks in office. A strike on Iran may not play well to his base, which is largely opposed to a deeper American conflict in the Middle East, but it could poison relations with Tehran so that it would be much harder for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, as he has promised to do.

Since Mr. Trump dismissed Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and other top Pentagon aides last week, Defense Department and other national security officials have privately expressed worries that the president might initiate operations, whether overt or secret, against Iran or other adversaries at the end of his term.

The events of the past few days are not the first time that Iran policy has emerged in the final days of a departing administration. During the last days of the Bush administration in 2008, Israeli officials, concerned that the incoming Obama administration would seek to block it from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, sought bunker-busting bombs, bombers and intelligence assistance from the United States for an Israeli-led strike.

Vice President Dick Cheney later wrote in his memoir that he supported the idea. President George W. Bush did not, but the result was a far closer collaboration with Israel on a cyberstrike against the Natanz facility, which took out about 1,000 of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.

Ever since, the Pentagon has revised its strike plans multiple times. It now has traditional military as well as cyberoptions, and some that combine the two. Some involve direct action by Israel.


The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that Iran now had a stockpile of more than 2,442 kilograms, or over 5,385 pounds, of low-enriched uranium. That is enough to produce about two nuclear weapons, according to an analysis of the report by the Institute for Science and International Security. But it would require several months of additional processing to enrich the uranium to bomb-grade material, meaning that Iran would not be close to a bomb until late spring at the earliest — well after Mr. Trump would have left office.

While the amount is concerning, it is far below the amount of fuel Iran possessed before President Barack Obama reached a nuclear accord with Tehran in July 2015. Late that year, under the terms of the accord, Iran shipped about 97 percent of its fuel stockpile to Russia — about 25,000 pounds — leaving it with less than it would need to build a single weapon.

The Iranians stuck to those limits even after Mr. Trump scrapped U.S. participation in the Iran accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. The Iranians began to slowly edge out of those limits last year, declaring that if Mr. Trump felt free to violate its terms, they would not continue to abide by them.

But the Iranians have hardly raced to produce new material: Their advances have been slow and steady, and they have denied seeking to build a weapon — though evidence stolen from the country several years ago by Israel made clear that was the plan before 2003.

Mr. Trump has argued since the 2016 campaign that Iran was hiding some of its actions and cheating on its commitments; the inspectors’ report last week gave him the first partial evidence to support that view. The report criticized Iran for not answering a series of questions about a warehouse in Tehran where inspectors found uranium particles, leading to suspicion that it had once been some kind of nuclear-processing facility. The report said Iran’s answers were “not technically credible.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency has previously complained that inspectors have been barred from fully reviewing some suspected sites.

It is not just the U.S. military that is looking at options. Mr. Pompeo, officials said, is closely watching events unfolding on the ground in Iraq for any hint of aggression from Iran or its proxy militias against American diplomats or troops stationed there.

Mr. Pompeo already drew up plans to close the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad over concerns of potential threats, although in recent days he appeared willing to leave that decision to the next administration. Mortar and rocket attacks against the embassy have waned over the past several weeks, and the task to shutter the largest American diplomatic mission in the world could take months to complete.

But officials said that could change if any Americans are killed before Inauguration Day.

Officials are especially nervous about the Jan. 3 anniversary of the U.S. strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and the Iraqi leader of an Iranian-backed militia — deaths that Iranian leaders regularly insist they have not yet avenged.

Mr. Pompeo, who has been the most strident proponent among Mr. Trump’s advisers of hobbling Iran while the administration still can, has more recently made clear that the death of an American was a red line that could provoke a military response.

That would also increase tensions between Washington and Baghdad. Diplomats said Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi of Iraq would almost certainly object to the killing of Iraqis — even Iranian-backed militiamen — on Iraqi soil by U.S. forces who already face demands to leave.

>>> What to look at today - 17th of November 2020

Investors continued to rotate into stocks more sensitive to economic growth Tuesday as they weighed renewed optimism about a Covid-19 vaccine against the coronavirus’s continued spread. The dollar extended a decline.
While most Asian benchmarks were little changed, energy and financial stocks pushed higher, and health care and communication shares lagged. U.S. futures retreated after the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high as Moderna Inc.’s vaccine was shown to be 94.5% effective. Stocks poised to benefit from a reopening, such as cruise lines and air carriers, were among the day’s best performers on Wall Street. European futures slid.
Elsewhere, Tesla Inc. shares jumped more than 10% in after-hours trading after an announcement that Elon Musk’s carmaker will join the S&P 500 Index on Dec. 21. Benchmark Treasury yields pushed back above 0.90%. Oil advanced above $41 a barrel. The pound ticked higher on optimism over a Brexit deal.
US After Hours TSLA +14% after being appointed to join the S&P 500; API -9% declines following earnings 

Nikkei +0.42% Hang Seng -0.01% CSI -0.72% Shanghai -0.66% Shenzen -1.57%

Eur$ 1.1856 CNH 6.5623 CNY 6.5654 JPY 104.52 GBP 1.3212 CHF 0.9123 RUB 76.3312 TRY 7.74 WTI $41.60 +0.65%

S&P -0.41% Nasdaq +0.07% EuroStoxx -0.443% FTSE -0.36% Dax -0.45% SMI

Macro :
- Tesla to Join S&P 500 Next Month as Largest-Ever New Member
- England May Need Tough Virus Curbs After Lockdown, Adviser Says

Keep an eye on :
- ADP FP : Aeroports De Paris October Passenger Traffic -56.8%
- AIR FP : Delta Skirts Trump Tariffs by Sending Airbus Jets on World Tour
- AOWME NO : Aker Offshore Wind Offering Prices 66.7m Shares at NOK4.50/Share
- BBVA SM : BBVA Says It’s in Talks With Sabadell on Potential Takeover
- IAG LN : *IAG'S IBERIA OFFERS TO BUY AIR EUROPA FOR EU400M: CONFIDENCIAL
- BP/ LN : BP Plans 250 Layoffs in Chicago, Reuters Says
- CPINV BB : Care Property Buys Care Home Project in Murcia for About EU10.8m
- CGG FP : CGG Awarded Large Offshore Malaysia Contracts by PTTEP
- CPR IM : Ex-Campari CEO Fined for Tipping Off Friend on Grand Marnier
- DSY FP : Dassault Systemes Expects to Double Non-IFRS EPS by 2024
- DOV IM : DoValue Signs Servicing Agreement With Bain for EU650m of NPLs
- DUFN SW : Be Cautious in Travel Retail, RBC Says, Downgrading WH Smith
- EQNR NO : Equinor Sees Tighter Oil Market If Demand Returns Fully
- RF FP : Eurazeo Says Fundraising to Increase in 2020; 3Q NAV EU69.1/Shr
- ERF FP : Eurofins Says Ten-for-One Stock Split Approved by EGM
- G4S LN : Allied Universal Wins U.S. Antitrust Clearance for G4S Deal
- GREEN BB : Greenyard 1H Adj. Ebitda Cont Ops EU56.6M Vs. EU47.6M Y/y
- GSF NO : Grieg Seafood 3Q Ebit Loss NOK192M, Est. Loss NOK187.0M
- ILD FP : Iliad 3Q Revenue Matches Estimates
- SAN SM : Santander buys Wirecard’s core European business for €100m
- SDR LN : Schroders Sees ‘Once-in-a-Generation’ Opportunity in U.K. Firms
- SFSN SW : SFS Expects 2020 Sales, Ebit to Be Lower Than in Prior Year
- SKFB SS : SKF Says Danielson to Step Down as President, CEO During 2021
- SOP FP : Sopra Steria in Exclusive Talks to Buy Fidor Solutions
- TWEKA NA : TKH Sees FY Adjusted Net EU65M to EU69M, Saw EU63M to EU69M
- TSLA US : Tesla’s Joining the S&P 500 Can Help Supercharge Record Rally
- TRI FP : Trigano FY Current Operating Income Beats Estimates
- VK FP : Vallourec Mulls Converting Most Debt Into Capital: Les Echos
- VALN SW : Valora Offering Prices 440k Shares at CHF158/Share
- VOW GY : VW Preparing Lamborghini, Ducati for Possible Ownership Changes
- VOW GY : Bugatti’s Winkelmann to Lead Lamborghini Again: Automobilwoche
- WDI GY : Santander buys Wirecard’s core European business for €100m

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 17th of November 2020

>>> Up
* Avast Raised to Buy at Citi
* BBVA PT Raised to 4.70 euros from 3.30 euros at RBC
* BP Raised to Sector Perform at RBC; PT 290 pence
* Edenred Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT 59 euros
* Elumeo Raised to Buy at Baader Helvea; PT 5 euros
* Eurocash Raised to Buy at Citi
* Fila Raised to Buy at Equita; PT 10.40 euros
* Informa Raised to Reduce at AlphaValue
* Instalco AB Raised to Buy at Carnegie; PT 253 kronor
* Veidekke Raised to Buy at Carnegie; PT 144 kroner
* Zignago Vetro Raised to Add at Intesa Sanpaolo; PT 15.50 euros

>>> Down
* BHP Group PLC Cut to Hold at SocGen
* GARO AB Cut to Sell at Carnegie; PT 500 kronor
* Petrofac Cut to Reduce at HSBC; PT 125 pence
* PZU Cut to Neutral at Citi
* Sampo Cut to Neutral at Citi
* Sampo Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank; PT 40 euros
* SkiStar Cut to Hold at Handelsbanken; PT 105 kronor
* SSP Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; PT 320 pence

>>> Initiation
* Abcam ADRs Rated New Outperform at William Blair
* Dufry Rated New Underperform at RBC; PT 45 Swiss francs
* Grenke Rated New Buy at Oddo BHF; PT 46 euros

>>> Call
* Lundin Energy Drilling Dry Well Is ‘Big Setback,’ Citi Says
* Sampo Starts Streamlining, Upside Seems Limited, Citi Says
* Be Cautious in Travel Retail, RBC Says, Downgrading WH Smith
* SSP Investment Case Changed, See Slower Recovery: Morgan Stanley

>>> Jana Partners (Barry Rosenstein) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13

Jana Partners (Barry Rosenstein) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New EHC BCO positions, Exited HI AXTA

Highlights from 2020 Q3 filing as compared to Q2 2020:
  • New positions in: EHC (~1.74 mln shares), NEWR (~0.55 mln), BCO (~0.5 mln)
  • Increased positions in: PRSP (affirms increased holding to ~12.8 mln shares from ~9.36 mln shares), SPY (to ~0.36 mln from ~0.34 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: CAG (~10.86 mln shares
  • Closed positions in: HI (from ~3.32 mln shares), AXTA (from ~1.91 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: ELY (to ~2.94 mln shares from ~5.66 mln shares), BLMN (affirms lowered holding to ~5.7 mln from ~7.35 mln), HDS (affirms lowered holding to ~1.14 mln from ~1.36 mln)

>>> Trian Fund (Nelson Peltz) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filin

Trian Fund (Nelson Peltz) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New IVZ CMCSA positions, affirms new JHG holding,

Highlights from 2020 Q3 filing as compared to Q2 2020:
  • New positions in: IVZ (~36.74 mln shares), JHG (~17.67 mln), CMCSA (~15.63 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: WEN (~26.63 mln shares), SYY (~24.38 mln)
  • Closed positions in: BK (from ~4.38 mln shares)
  • Decreased positions in: GE (confirms lowered holding to ~32.18 mln shares from ~59.33 mln shares), NVT (confirms lowered holding to ~5.83 mln from ~12.39 mln), MDLZ (confirms lowered holding to ~12.24 mln from ~15.85 mln), PG (to ~10.13 mln from ~10.83 mln)

>>> Elliott Management (Paul Singer) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13

Elliott Management (Paul Singer) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New UNIT CUB positions

Highlights from 2020 Q3 filing as compared to Q2 2020:
  • New positions in: UNIT (~20.48 mln shares), CUB (~1.5 mln)
  • Increased positions in: DELL (to ~24.11 mln shares from ~21.13 mln shares), CRMD (to ~1.76 mln from ~0.83 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: HWM (~41.57 mln shares), BTU (~28.92 mln shares), NLSN (~16.6 mln shares), ARNC (~10.39 mln shares), EBAY (~9.9 mln shares), MPC (~9.67 mln shares), TWTR (~3.5 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: RYAAY (from ~0.56 mln shares)
  • Decreased positions in: WELL (to ~0.4 mln shares from ~3.56 mln shares), RILY (to ~0.36 mln from ~1.17 mln)

>>> Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn) discloses updated portfolio positions in

Greenlight Capital (David Einhorn) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New TWTR INTC positions, Affirms new SNX NCR holdings

Highlights from 2020 Q3 filing as compared to Q2 2020:
  • New positions in: NCR (~1.4 mln shares), TWTR (~0.49 mln), INTC (~0.3 mln), PANA (~0.3 mln), SNX (~0.27 mln), DDS (~0.2 mln), MNOV (~0.19 mln), INGR (~0.16 mln), KW (~0.13 mln), ICPT (~0.1 mln)
  • Increased positions in: GLD (to ~0.38 mln shares from ~0.06 mln shares), REZI (to ~2.17 mln from ~1.94 mln), NBSE (to ~2.03 mln from ~1.9 mln), AAWW (to ~1.51 mln from ~1.42 mln), JACK (to ~0.2 mln from ~0.19 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: GRBK (~24.12 mln shares), CCR (~5.49 mln shares), CHNG (~5.29 mln shares), BHF (~3.64 mln shares), CCK (~0.21 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: XELA (from ~1.04 mln shares), SATS (from ~0.17 mln), TPX (from ~0.07 mln), WHR (from ~0.03 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: GPOR (to ~0.65 mln shares from ~1.31 mln shares), AER (to ~3.01 mln from ~3.52 mln), CC (to ~3.05 mln from ~3.4 mln), CNX (to ~2.81 mln from ~3.04 mln) APG (to ~0.64 mln from ~0.72 mln)

>>> ValueAct (Jeffrey Ubben and Bradley Singer) discloses updated portfolio posi

ValueAct (Jeffrey Ubben and Bradley Singer) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New CDW position; Affirms lowered NKLA LIND holdings

Highlights from 2020 Q3 filing as compared to Q2 2020:
  • New positions in: CDW (~0.24 mln shares)
  • Maintained positions in: KKR (~45 mln shares), SLM (~32.29 mln shares), STX (~31.55 mln shares), C (~27.03 mln shares), TRN (~27.01 mln shares), LKQ (~21.55 mln shares), BHC (~17.93 mln shares), CBRE (~10.23 mln shares), AOS (~2.09 mln shares)
  • Closed positions in: NKLA (from ~11.68 mln shares), VRRM (from ~5.91 mln), AES (from ~5.35 mln), LIND (from ~4.92 mln), EVA (from ~4.83 mln), HE (from ~3.25 mln), DAR (from ~2.64 mln), BP (from ~2.57 mln), UFI (from ~1.42 mln), STRA (from ~0.59 mln)
  • Decreased positions in: MS (to ~11.5 mln shares from ~14.25 mln shares)

>>> Paulson & Co (John Paulson) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F fil

Paulson & Co (John Paulson) discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: Increased ENDP SSRM holdings

Highlights from 2020 Q3 filing as compared to Q2 2020:
  • Increased positions in: ENDP (to ~14.5 mln shares from ~9.63 mln shares), THM (to ~61.93 mln from ~59.59 mln), SSRM (to ~1.31 mln from ~1.16 mln), TCO (to ~0.39 mln from ~0.3 mln)
  • Maintained positions in: BHC (~25.84 mln shares), NG (~22.23 mln shares), BSIG (~20 mln shares), MYL (~11.48 mln shares), TAK (~11.3 mln shares), AU (~6.97 mln shares), DISCK (~6.9 mln shares), DISH (~3.62 mln shares), VIAC (~1.57 mln shares),
  • Decreased positions in: HZNP (to ~6.69 mln shares from ~6.89 mln shares), QGEN (to ~0.4 mln from ~0.56 mln), PCRX (to ~1.26 mln from ~1.29 mln)