GameStop got plenty of buzz this week: It fired its chief financial officer, signaled a new round of layoffs, and announced a four-for-one stock split, which gave the meme-stock a boost from retail investors. Cheddar News anchors discussed why it's the stock of the week.

Closing Bell

Stock of the Week: GameStop

Yeah, now let's get to our stock of the week. Today we're looking at Gamestop GME, which has been on the headlines often over the past several days. Today's shares are falling. Let's see where they are down about 4.73% on the news. The video game retailer fired its CFO and is laying off some staff across the company. Finance chief Michael Ricupero had only been on the job for less than a year before being canned in a brief memo, Ceo matt furlong said the company would continue to invest in its store employees as well as roll out products from its Blockchain business. Gamestop has begun to dabble in N. F. T. S and crypto as it looks to adapt its business model away from brick and mortar stores and more toward e commerce. Now, in terms of those layoffs, we mentioned, it's not clear how many jobs will be cut, but it's reported to be more than 150 with most of the staff of the game informer magazine being laid off. It goes along with Gamestop's decision to shift focus away from video games and toward N. F. T. S and Blockchain, it's joining other companies like Uber Netflix and Spotify to cut staff. As wider markets have cratered in recent months after the company announced a four for one stock split as the meme stock favorite attempts to make it easier for retail investors to own stock in the company. The split will be in the form of a stock dividend to be distributed after the closing bell on july 21st, the company joins a few other household names that have announced stock splits this year, we're talking amazon Tesla and google parent company alphabet. Generally stock prices rise after an announcement of a stock split because the lower share price means more liquidity and better accessibility for the casual investor. And it's safe to say that Gamestop has been on a wild ride over the past couple of years. It was stagnant for a long time at about 10 to $20 per share until it became the focal point of retail investors. On Reddit's Wall Street bets page, these traders joined forces to institute a short squeeze amid the large number of investors shorting the stock, sending the stock soaring up to nearly $350 a share. At one point a year and a half ago, time flies. It quickly became known as a meme stock because supporters posted memes on Reddit to show their commitment to Gamestop. And this new wave of trading has kept Gamestop in the spotlight. But now the biggest question is, where does Gamestop go from here, Hannah, Well, we know Gamestop created its own crypto wallet. It's unveiling its N. F. T. Marketplace later this year as it transforms its business. But the collapse of the crypto and N. F. T. Marketplace amid decades high inflation could spell slow growth in the coming months. Let's take a look at the price of Bitcoin so far this year, it is town 46.6% in that same vein. The sales volume of N. F. T. S is down a whopping 93% since january. We'll have to wait and see whether Gamestop can stay relevant as it constantly pivots its business model and whether it will actually stop selling games. But one thing the meme stock craze has shown us is that you should bet against the company at your own peril because it has a way of staying alive. I was just gonna stay say that three years ago we never thought we'd be talking about Gamestop as routinely as we do on this network. I have to say, I want to go back to the CFO the firing of Michael Ricupero. Usually companies don't say that a CFO or anyone in the C suite was fired. This is a very different approach to it. Usually they just say they've stepped down or left the company and all they're saying is that under the terms of his employment agreement, it was without cause so I am curious to know what what may have happened there. Apparently, I'm seeing some reports that he was pushed out by Ryan Cohen, the chairman of the board of Gamestop for being quote too hands off and we know Ryan Cohen has mentioned that he bought up 100,000 more shares. Very bullish on the future of the company. But we'll leave it there for now