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Ryan Cohen on Squawk Box Full Interview $GME https://t.co/l8xmXurWqi
Video Transcript AI Summary
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen discussed an auction of a stapler and damaged Nintendo Switch from a store event, currently bid at $250,000. If bidding reaches seven figures, Cohen will personally deliver signed underwear to the winner in Miami, including a McDonald's trip.
Cohen stated GameStop is now more profitable, smaller, and has a strong balance sheet, shifting focus to trading cards and collectibles. GameStop has invested over $500 million in Bitcoin as an inflation hedge. With over $9 billion in cash and marketable securities, GameStop will seek opportunistic investments with limited downside. Cohen noted his lack of compensation aligns him with shareholders, criticizing excessive executive pay.
Cohen believes people should be allowed to invest how they want, but understands the risks. He is a passive investor in Apple and Wells Fargo. He sees Apple as the strongest brand but needing AI improvements. Cohen sees opportunities to use cryptocurrency for trading card purchases and transactions.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Welcome back to Squawk Box. The infamous GameStop stapler that damaged the Nintendo Switch starting what had been dubbed the Staplegate has now hit the auction block, and for a good cause. This morning, we are talking to GameStop CEO, Ryan Cohen, who's a little bit behind some of this. Ryan, great to see you. It's been a while.
What what is go I have about a million questions about what's going on with GameStop and your investments and everything else, but let's start with the stapler. It's up to what? $250,000 right now?
Speaker 1: Yes. So what So we had our store in Staten Island on launch day, and the store manager, took the stapler and stapled it into the switch. So we damaged the switch, we refurbished it, and now we're auctioning off the stapler, the switch, and the actual, and the the basically, it turned into a collectible. So it's, right now, $250,000. I'd originally said six figures, I'm gonna throw in my underwear.
We've surpassed that obviously. And now seven figures, if we get the seven figures, I'll personally deliver the underwear in Miami, and we'll take a trip to McDonald's together.
Speaker 0: Your dirty underwear? Do you yeah. Do you believe the underwear is gonna advance the price, and are you gonna sign the underwear?
Speaker 1: I will sign the underwear. Whether we'll advance the price or not, I'm not sure. We'll see.
Speaker 0: And just so we're clear, is this a you said a trip to it's a trip to Miami, or they gotta pick it up in Miami where you live?
Speaker 1: I will fly them to to Miami, and McDonald's is on me.
Speaker 0: And McDonald's how how much stuff can they get at McDonald's?
Speaker 1: Whatever they want.
Speaker 0: Wow. I mean, that I I could order a lot of McDonald's. I don't know if I could get up to the price though. Before we even get we go farther, who do you think is is bidding on this?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 0: Are you though fascinated by this sort of fascination with with GameStop and with you? I mean, the fact that people would would want your underwear? I don't do a lot of interviews why I ask about the underwear, Ryan.
Speaker 1: It's a nice underwear. What kind? Don't tell me the kind that has those little holders.
Speaker 0: No. No. No. No. Okay.
Let let's let's do the one. Only the winner is gonna find out. Only the winner is gonna find out. Are those called? Ryan, let's let's talk about where GameStop sits right now in in terms of just where you are on the journey.
And and, I mean, I remember talking to you a million years ago, obviously, during this sort of GameStop frenzy, but where where are you from then to now?
Speaker 1: We're a much more profitable business, smaller business, less stores, very strong balance sheet. We are you know, we've, we've gotten our costs under control, and, we've changed the business from, a reliance on hardware and software to a significant focus on trading cards and, and collectibles generally.
Speaker 0: And how do you think about crypto in the middle of all that?
Speaker 1: We've made an investment of, just over $500,000,000 into into Bitcoin, and I look at it as a as a as a hedge against inflation and global money printing. And and we'll see what happens. So But
Speaker 0: how much should should people who are investing in in GameStop think of you as some kind of, like portfolio of assets, and and maybe even like a mini micro strategy or something?
Speaker 1: No. I mean, we we have our own unique strategy, and we have, a very strong balance sheet, over $9,000,000,000 of cash and marketable securities. And, we will deploy that capital responsibly as I would my own as as I would my own capital and, only look for opportunities where, the downside is limited and there's a lot of upside. So we'll be opportunistic when we see those opportunities.
Speaker 0: I'm curious what you think of your shareholder base these days. Again, because I think so many people think about the shareholders during what was this GameStop frenzy, and and just your ability to take to x or or social media and and get people, as I said, excited about what you're doing and how how you think about that. It's very unusual. Well, it's just unusual. I mean, you and and maybe Elon Musk and I I don't know if I should put you in the same category, but have sort of a very special ability to have this sort of fan following that's sort of very unusual.
You can post an emoji of something and and people go crazy.
Speaker 1: We have a loyal shareholder base, clearly. I don't think there's many situations of public companies where the CEO receives absolutely no compensation and is, I mean, you you can never be completely aligned with common shareholders because everyone has a different cost basis and has a different time horizon, but I don't get compensated. I've invested my own personal capital. I don't have any perverse incentives, and, the goal is to maximize shareholder value. So, you know, you see these public companies where you've got executives and they're collecting tens of millions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars in risk free compensation.
And
Speaker 0: Right.
Speaker 1: Frankly, it's despicable. And so that's, that that's not the way that I run GameStop.
Speaker 0: I actually have a broader question about investors since I think you have a unusual relation with them. We've been talking on the broadcast for the past couple weeks about this push towards folks who are who are tokenizing effectively private companies, shares in private companies to what might be described as unaccredited investors, the people who have less than a million dollars. There's a big argument being made that we need to democratize investing that the real opportunities are in are in private investments and that these sort of derivative instruments are are a great opportunity. There's other people who say this is crazy and we have regulations for a reason, and for some reason they're not being applied or at least listened to in this context. What do you think about all of that?
Speaker 1: I don't have much of an opinion on it. I'm I haven't looked into it. So
Speaker 0: The reason intelligent to say on the topic. Okay. No. The reason I ask is more just about sort of the opportunity set for traders today and and sort of the opportunity to make money in these in these unusual I don't if they're unusual, but different ways and and this idea of democratizing investing, which I think a lot of people look to what you've done and think that that this is about democratizing opportunity.
Speaker 1: I think that there's a lot of risk in investing period, especially in individual securities, and, I don't give out investing advice. And I've always said the best thing to do for for most people is to invest in low cost ETFs, and you can lose a lot of money investing, and you have to have the right temperament for it. So it's Are you it's for the very few. But Are you in terms of people being able allowed to invest in whatever the hell they want, people should be allowed to invest whatever the hell they want, and, they take on those risks. And, so, I mean, that's generally my point of point of view, but understand that it comes with significant risk and volatility, and you gotta have the right temperament and and do your own diligence.
Speaker 0: Are you still a passive investor in Apple and Netflix and I think Wells Fargo at one point? Yeah. And and what you're taking?
Speaker 1: In Apple and in Wells Fargo.
Speaker 0: So in terms of Apple, obviously, there's been a lot of questions about Apple and AI and where they sit in terms of the stack relative to so many other players. Do you look at that as a value play at this point? Do you think it's oversold? What's what's your take?
Speaker 1: Think it's the strongest brand in the world. You know, you look around you, everyone is glued to their iPhones, and people aren't switching devices. They can do a much better job in artificial intelligence. There's there's no question. Siri is the, you know, same thing that it was ten or fifteen years ago, and, you know, there's definitely an opportunity for them to improve in AI.
But they own the ecosystem, and, they've got a very strong enviable business.
Speaker 0: Do you think they need to to be super strong in AI or that can just be a layer from somebody else on top?
Speaker 1: Only if they can make money.
Speaker 0: You mean only if they can make money from the hardware part? You're saying only if they can make money from folks who are paying them to be the layer on top?
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's not clear who the winners in AI is gonna be ultimately. You know, you look today, chat GPT is, you know, clearly number one, but we'll see if they can ultimately develop a real mode in AI or ultimately once, you know, everyone's models are at the same level, how much pricing model there will be between, the different languages and the different models is is TBD. So I think everyone's trying to figure out long term how do you monetize AI. There's no question AI is incredibly disruptive, but who the long term winners are gonna be is, I I don't have a point of view at this point on on who's gonna be able to ultimately create a durable competitive advantage in the space.
Speaker 0: You do have a lot of money in Alibaba, so I imagine you think that they have a credible claim in the AI world. We're supposed to be talking about GameStop. I I just just curious where you land. Well, let me ask you in terms of trading cards, maybe it maybe goes to crypto and trading cards. Do you think that crypto and trading cards ever go together in some kind of digital way that we don't know about?
Speaker 1: It could. I we will days.
Speaker 0: Give me a little more.
Speaker 1: We'll see. We'll see what happens. But, you know, we've there there's opportunities.
Speaker 0: Can you tell us about those opportunities in terms of just how how to think about it for the investors or even the customers of of GameStop right now? Like, what to expect?
Speaker 1: There's an opportunity to buy trading cards and to do so using cryptocurrency. So, we'll see how much there is on the actual demand side for that kind of product, but, there's definitely an opportunity to to actually use crypto to, in the space. And the utility of crypto beyond, and investing is is a hedge against inflation. I think that so far that's that's been the biggest demand for crypto. And so the the ability to actually use crypto within transactions is something that is an opportunity, and, you know, we've it's something that we're looking at.
Speaker 0: Is that stablecoins? Is that Ethereum? Or you're thinking people are gonna actually use Bitcoin to pay for things?
Speaker 1: I mean, we're gonna look at all cryptocurrencies.
Speaker 0: Okay. Ryan, we're gonna leave it there. We appreciate it. We wish you lots of luck today with this big auction. We hope that you make a lot of money for charity.
And if somebody wants the stapler and the underwear and McDonald's, you can go out and get it this this morning.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna place a bed?
Speaker 0: Well, you're you might have priced me out already because we're at 2 what are we at? $2.50? It's might be going up as we're talking. So I don't you know, if it had been at $2.50, I think that would have been a steal. $2.49 700.
Speaker 1: It's not too late. You've you've got a about a day left.
Speaker 0: I got a day left. I I may do a, like, a GoFundMe page to see if I can I can maybe crowdsource some money to put together Okay? For our our
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What the hell $GME https://t.co/Dw2K5oZ6bi
Video Transcript AI Summary
I'm saying all the wrong things right now. Where's that eject button? It might be time. Am I okay?
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: I'm not saying I'm not saying any of the right things. I'm saying all the wrong things right now. Where's that eject button? It might be time. It might be time.
Am I okay? That
