8 ms·

The context this comment misses is Gamestop's secret weapon is their CEO Ryan Cohen who has been sitting around the hoop trying to figure out how to leverage Ga

by aresant 4mo ago

The context this comment misses is Gamestop's secret weapon is their CEO Ryan Cohen who has been sitting around the hoop trying to figure out how to leverage Gamestop's fundraising capabilities to do something big Couple of highlights on Ryan - Built and sold Chewy from a startup to the largest ecomm acq of all time - Became #1 individual shareholder of Apple early on - Bought a 10% share of Gamespot in 2020 becoming largest personal shareholder - Took over as CEO after being a proactive board member, works for no salary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Cohen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Cohen

matthewdgreen 4mo ago
I wish we would normalize people just running a business well and taking a damned salary.
- love2read 4mo ago
  You want to normalize low ambitions?
  - jader201 4mo ago
    "Running a business well" is now "low ambitions"?
  - triceratops 4mo ago
    Doing a good job without it benefiting your personally.
  - GuinansEyebrows 4mo ago
    unironically, yes. go get good at tetris if you need a high score for personal validation.
  - Bjartr 4mo ago
    While successfully running a business in a sustainable way may not be the peak of ambition, calling it low ambition is toxic in the other direction.
_boffin_ 4mo ago
Wasn’t there something where his comp package mandated 50b in market cap? Ahh. 100b https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Announces-Long-Term-Performance-Award-for-Ryan-Cohen/default.aspx https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202...
- rtkwe 4mo ago
  He gets money every $10B of market cap anyways so even if it never grows this acquisition makes RC money.
bayarearefugee 4mo ago
> works for no salary Working for no salary is almost never charitable and is almost always just part of a larger tax avoidance scheme.
- tombert 4mo ago
  Yeah I've never thought that that was the win that people seem to think it is. When you're that high up in the company, you have so much stock that you can pretty easily get loans against for however much you need, and write off the interest in the process.
  - rtkwe 4mo ago
    They have to trot it out because otherwise there's not much else to pimp about Cohen as CEO and this attempted deal seems much more oriented to juice the total market value of GME to more easily meet the criteria for his recent pay package rather than a great idea for either company on it's own.
  - valleyer 4mo ago
    What U.S. tax code provision allows an individual to write off (non-primary-mortgage) loan interest?
    - tombert 4mo ago
      Can't you write off capital losses? I've been able to deduct margin interest from my capital gains.
      - valleyer 4mo ago
        Margin interest is tax-deductible, but only when you're using the loan to buy more securities. So, in context, a CEO who "works for no salary" and just takes out loans secured by their stock holdings to fund their lifestyle does not get to write off that interest. Not to say the "no salary" thing isn't silly anyway, of course.
- 4mo ago
this_user 4mo ago
You should also mention that Cohen never managed to turn Chewy into a profitable business before selling it off. Similarly, his strategic initiatives at Gamestop have all been failure (e-commerce push, NFTs, digital games platform, crypto investments, ...). The only thing that has worked is aggressively cutting costs, mainly by shutting down stores, which was a plan that had already been proposed by BCG before Cohen came onboard. Basically, he has done nothing except for taking credit for a plan that was already in motion and repeatedly diluting shareholders to raise funds that have been sitting in T-Bills ever since. There is no indication whatsoever that this guy is some kind of business genius who would be able to run Ebay better than the current management - quite the opposite actually.
- tombert 4mo ago
  I find it weird that people idolize businesspeople who basically just engage in ponzinomics. They create businesses that don't make any money, often don't have any plans to ever make money, with the hope that they either get bought out by a BigCo or become public so that it becomes the index funds' problem. It feels like this has been going on for about as long as Silicon Valley has been a thing, so maybe it actually is sustainable, but it sure feels like we are building our economy on a house of cards.
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
turtlesdown11 4mo ago
very impressive spokesman for the business and transaction > it's on our website https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E

by aresant 4mo ago

matthewdgreen 4mo ago

I wish we would normalize people just running a business well and taking a damned salary.

love2read 4mo ago
You want to normalize low ambitions?
- jader201 4mo ago
  "Running a business well" is now "low ambitions"?
- triceratops 4mo ago
  Doing a good job without it benefiting your personally.
- GuinansEyebrows 4mo ago
  unironically, yes. go get good at tetris if you need a high score for personal validation.
- Bjartr 4mo ago
  While successfully running a business in a sustainable way may not be the peak of ambition, calling it low ambition is toxic in the other direction.

_boffin_ 4mo ago

Wasn’t there something where his comp package mandated 50b in market cap? Ahh. 100b https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/2026/GameStop-Announces-Long-Term-Performance-Award-for-Ryan-Cohen/default.aspx https://investor.gamestop.com/news-releases/news-details/202...

rtkwe 4mo ago
He gets money every $10B of market cap anyways so even if it never grows this acquisition makes RC money.

bayarearefugee 4mo ago

> works for no salary Working for no salary is almost never charitable and is almost always just part of a larger tax avoidance scheme.

tombert 4mo ago
Yeah I've never thought that that was the win that people seem to think it is. When you're that high up in the company, you have so much stock that you can pretty easily get loans against for however much you need, and write off the interest in the process.
- rtkwe 4mo ago
  They have to trot it out because otherwise there's not much else to pimp about Cohen as CEO and this attempted deal seems much more oriented to juice the total market value of GME to more easily meet the criteria for his recent pay package rather than a great idea for either company on it's own.
- valleyer 4mo ago
  What U.S. tax code provision allows an individual to write off (non-primary-mortgage) loan interest?
  - tombert 4mo ago
    Can't you write off capital losses? I've been able to deduct margin interest from my capital gains.
    - valleyer 4mo ago
      Margin interest is tax-deductible, but only when you're using the loan to buy more securities. So, in context, a CEO who "works for no salary" and just takes out loans secured by their stock holdings to fund their lifestyle does not get to write off that interest. Not to say the "no salary" thing isn't silly anyway, of course.
4mo ago

this_user 4mo ago

You should also mention that Cohen never managed to turn Chewy into a profitable business before selling it off. Similarly, his strategic initiatives at Gamestop have all been failure (e-commerce push, NFTs, digital games platform, crypto investments, ...). The only thing that has worked is aggressively cutting costs, mainly by shutting down stores, which was a plan that had already been proposed by BCG before Cohen came onboard. Basically, he has done nothing except for taking credit for a plan that was already in motion and repeatedly diluting shareholders to raise funds that have been sitting in T-Bills ever since. There is no indication whatsoever that this guy is some kind of business genius who would be able to run Ebay better than the current management - quite the opposite actually.

tombert 4mo ago
I find it weird that people idolize businesspeople who basically just engage in ponzinomics. They create businesses that don't make any money, often don't have any plans to ever make money, with the hope that they either get bought out by a BigCo or become public so that it becomes the index funds' problem. It feels like this has been going on for about as long as Silicon Valley has been a thing, so maybe it actually is sustainable, but it sure feels like we are building our economy on a house of cards.

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

turtlesdown11 4mo ago

very impressive spokesman for the business and transaction > it's on our website https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmj2PaxX24E