GameStop CEO decries 'wokeness and DEI' as company seeks to sell Canadian and French operations

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen derided “wokeness and DEI” as the video game retailer giant seeks to sell operations in France and Canada.

The company announced in a Tuesday release that as a part of “its evaluation of its international assets,” GameStop “intends to pursue a sale of its operations in France and Canada.”

On the same day, Cohen slammed “wokeness” and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in both Canada and France.

“Email M&A@gamestop.com if you’re interested in buying GameStop Canada or Micromania France. High taxes, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Wokeness and DEI included at no additional cost if you buy today,” Cohen wrote in a Tuesday post on the social platform X.

The company said in a December filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that they have “initiated a comprehensive store portfolio optimization review which involves identifying stores for closure based on many factors, including an evaluation of current market conditions and individual store performance.”

“While this review is ongoing and a specific set of stores has not been identified for closure, we anticipate that it may result in the closure of a larger number of stores than we have closed in the past few years,” the company said in the filing.

In the same filing, GameStop said it shuttered its operations in Ireland, Switzerland and Austria during fiscal 2023. During the third quarter of fiscal 2024, the company said it “initiated” a plan to “wind down our operations in Germany, with store operations scheduled to end by the close of the fiscal year.”

GameStop had 203 stores in Canada and 647 stores in Europe, according to an SEC filing.
It has closed more than 700 stores since 2020, as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced closures of physical stores.

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