GameStop plans to elect activist investor Cohen as chairman

GameStop Corp, which has been part of a recent Reddit-driven trading frenzy, said on Thursday it intends to elect activist investor Ryan Cohen as chairman, putting him in the driver's seat as he looks to transform the videogame retailer.

Since Chewy co-founder Cohen joined GameStop's board in January, he has been pushing towards transformation of the brick-and-mortar retailer into an e-commerce firm that can take on big-box retailers such as Target Corp and technology firms such as Microsoft Corp.

The company also said on Thursday it was nominating six people, including Cohen, to stand for election to its board at the annual meeting of stockholders on June 9.

Shares of GameStop were up over 3% in premarket trading, snapping a three-day losing streak.

The announcement comes after GameStop on Monday increased the value of the new stock it may sell to $1 billion from $100 million, as it seeks to capitalize on a surge in its shares from the Reddit-driven rally.

The GameStop stock has rampaged over 900% higher since January in highly volatile trading as amateur investors organized on social media sites such as Reddit staged a stubborn buying spree, winning out over Wall Street hedge funds that had shorted its shares.

The board nominations also include Larry Cheng, co-founder and managing partner of investment firm Volition Capital and Yang Xu, who is the senior vice president of global finance and treasury at the Kraft Heinz Co.

Separately, GameStop said in a regulatory filing that Kurtis Wolf resigned from the company's board.

His resignation was not a result of any disagreement with the company on any matters related to its operations, GameStop said.