GameStop CEO George Sherman to Step Down by July 31 |

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said Chief Executive

George Sherman

will step down by July 31, the latest in a series of changes to the videogame retailer’s leadership team since Chewy Inc. co-founder

Ryan Cohen

became a board member in January.

Mr. Cohen, who has been nominated as GameStop’s chairman, had urged the company to focus on e-commerce and reduce store count, among other initiatives. The company is now working to transform its decades-old bricks-and-mortar business to become more technology-centric.

Mr. Sherman has been chief executive officer of the Grapevine, Texas-based company since April 2019. The company on Monday pointed to its annual filing in March that said the board has retained a third-party firm to evaluate executive leadership. GameStop is focusing its search on candidates with a background in the technology or the videogame industry, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

A replacement for Mr. Sherman would be the sixth person to hold the role since late 2017.

“GameStop appreciates the valuable leadership that George has provided throughout his tenure,” Mr. Cohen said in the company’s announcement. “He took many decisive steps to stabilize the business during challenging times.”

At least three top lieutenants of Mr. Sherman have left the company or announced plans to depart within the past few months. The Journal reported in February that former finance chief

Jim Bell

was forced out of his role, while customer chief

Frank Hamlin

resigned last month. GameStop has said merchandising chief Chris Homeister is resigning because of diminished responsibilities and will leave during the company’s fiscal second quarter.

The leadership and board shuffles came as the company faces pressure to deliver results that measure up to its recently inflated share price that was driven up by a Reddit-fueled trading frenzy and a so-called short-squeeze, when rising prices prompt investors to buy back shares they sold short to reduce their losses.

GameStop’s stock traded under $3 a share in April last year as the pandemic prompted the temporary closure of the company’s bricks-and-mortar locations. The shares ended 2020 at just below $19. Shares closed $154.69 on Friday and rose about 6% in premarket trading Monday.

GameStop has struggled with sales growth for several years, and a few months before Mr. Sherman’s tenure started, the company ended a monthslong search for a buyer. In GameStop’s most recent quarter, which included the holiday-shopping season, sales fell slightly from a year earlier as coronavirus-related closings weighed on its operations.

The company, however, has since pointed to improving sales trends. Mr. Sherman has said GameStop will benefit from initiatives such as expanding its product selection to make it less dependent on the releases of new gaming consoles from the likes of

Sony Group Corp.

and

Microsoft Corp.

The recent trading volatility of GameStop and other stocks has prompted scrutiny of key players in the saga. Probes into potential wrongdoing are centered on actions taken by both brokerages and users on social media forums. WSJ explains what regulators are looking into and why this situation is so unique. Illustration: Jacob Reynolds

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

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