GameStop chief operating officer Owens leaves after 7 months By Reuters

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

(Reuters) – GameStop Corp (NYSE:), the corporate whose inventory grew to become a sensation with day merchants this 12 months, stated on Friday that Jenna Owens agreed to depart, simply seven months after becoming a member of the online game retailer as it’s chief working officer.

It’s the first main government departure at GameStop for the reason that firm employed a brand new chief government officer, Matt Furlong, in June.

Owens, who was a prime government at Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc’s Google, joined GameStop in March. She was one of many expertise veterans recruited by Ryan Cohen, the co-founder and former CEO of on-line pet meals retailer Chewy (NYSE:) Inc, as he laid the groundwork to remodel the moribund brick-and-mortar retailer into an e-commerce powerhouse.

GameStop didn’t present a purpose for Owens’ departure, which is efficient instantly. The corporate stated in a regulatory submitting that it and Owens had reached a “separation settlement,” which is often negotiated when firms and their executives don’t see eye-to-eye.

GameStop additionally used separation agreements when it parted methods with its chief monetary officer Jim Bell and chief government officer George Sherman earlier this 12 months. They have been changed by Furlong as CEO and Mike Recupero as CFO.

Owens shall be entitled to a severance package deal, the submitting stated. Her duties shall be taken up by different senior GameStop managers.

The corporate declined to remark past the submitting. Owens couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

Cohen and two different former Chewy executives joined the GameStop board in January, proper earlier than retail traders piled into the corporate’s inventory and drove it up greater than 2,500%. The shares have given up a few of their features and GameStop is now valued at roughly $14 billion.

Since changing into chairman in June, Cohen has pushed aggressively to enhance clients’ expertise however has not supplied an in depth plan about how GameStop will obtain its digital transformation..

The Grapevine, Texas-based firm’s enterprise of promoting video video games for consoles faces competitors from streaming companies corresponding to these of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), which permit customers to play video video games on their TV units with no console required.

Cohen recruited a lot of executives from Amazon, together with Furlong and Elliott Wilkie who joined as chief progress officer in March.

Public data and filings present the corporate has employed dozens of latest executives with provide chain and expertise backgrounds from firms together with Chewy and ecommerce firm Zulily.

Cohen and Furlong have additionally let go a number of senior workers in latest months who haven’t match their system, the 2 sources stated.