GameStop’s CEO Goes Out on Top
Matt Levine, 26 April 2021
Is George Sherman one of the greatest public-company chief executive officers in American history? He became CEO of GameStop Corp. on April 15, 2019. The stock closed at $8.94 per share that day. On April 19, 2021 — almost exactly two years later — GameStop announced that he will be stepping down by July. The stock closed at $164.37 that day. That’s a 1,739% return over his two-year term, or about 325% annualized. (The S&P 500 index was up 43%, or about 20% a year, over those two years.) GameStop’s market capitalization went from about $900 million to about $11.5 billion; Sherman added about $10.5 billion of shareholder value in two years. 1
How much should he get paid, for doing this amazing work for shareholders? A billion dollars? Two billion? If GameStop’s shareholders had only gotten the S&P 500 return over the last few years, they’d have missed out on more than $10 billion in value; I suppose you could make a case that they should be willing to pay Sherman up to $10 billion for his magic touch. Continue reading “Article: GameStop’s CEO Goes Out on Top”

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