Shares of GameStop Corp. GME,
rose 10.2% Monday in premarket trading after the video game retailer announced an agreement with activist investor RC Ventures LLC, which includes the immediate addition of three members to its board of directors. One of the new board members is Ryan Cohen, who is the manager of RC Ventures, which is the second largest shareholder in GameStop with 13.8% of the outstanding shares, according to FactSet data. Cohen was also founded and was previously CEO of Chewy Inc. CHWY,
“We appreciate the constructive dialogue we’ve had with Ryan over the past few months,” said GameStop CEO George Sherman. “Together, we have reached a result that is in the interest of all shareholders and that can allow GameStop to accelerate efforts to add value to the company.” Separately, GameStop said sales in the same store for the 9-week holiday sales period ended Jan. 2 were up 4.8 percent from a year ago. Net sales for the period fell 3.1% to $ 1.77 billion, as strong demand for game consoles was offset by store closures, while e-commerce sales rose 309%. about 34% of total sales. The stock rose 47.2% in the last three months to Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX,
gained 10.0%.