GameStop wants to conduct ‘major acquisition’ of a public company

The CEO of retailer GameStop, Ryan Cohen, has said he wants to acquire a publicly traded company.

That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which spoke to the billionaire chief executive about his plans to secure that $35 billion payday that the company put him on track for last year.

In order to do so, he has to bring GameStop’s market cap to $100 billion. At the time of writing, the retailer is worth $10.68 billion, and even at the height of the January 2021 meme stock frenzy, the firm only ever reached a peak of $33.7 billion.

Cohen told the Journal that any potential acquisition would be “big”, adding that: “It’s ultimately either going to be genius or totally, totally foolish.” The exec is looking at companies in the consumer or retail industry and already has a few companies in his sights.

GameStop has in the region of $9 billion in cash and liquid securities that it can use to make an acquisition.

“There are a lot of diamonds in the rough…that have sleepy management teams,” Cohen said, discussing companies in the retail space.

“I didn’t fix GameStop to stop there.”

GME stock is up 3.5% this morning following Cohen’s comments.

At the start of 2026, reports began to surface about GameStop closing a large number of stores in the United States. At the time of writing, the GSClosing blog has the tally at 470 confirmed closures across the country.

That follows 590 stores shutting their doors in the US during the 2024 financial year, as well as the company pulling out of Ireland, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. GameStop has also sold off its Italian business and is in the process of finding a buyer for its French and Canadian subsidiaries.

Earlier in January, there were reports that GameStop was also closing its EB Games stores in New Zealand. The company has since confirmed that its remaining 38 shops will be shutting down.