GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen is eyeing what he says could be a “genius or totally, totally foolish” major acquisition

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen told The Wall Street Journal that he’s on the hunt for a “big” acquisition in the consumer or retail industry that would ultimately either “be genius or totally, totally foolish.”

During his tenure atop the company, Cohen has been successful in trimming costs and growing the company’s collectibles business. But the potential for him to pursue a “transformative” acquisition — buoyed by all the money the company was able to raise during episodic meme stock rallies — has been cited as a key pillar of the bull case by its investors, including Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, and Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame, who recently announced that he’s long the stock.

GameStop has recently shifted its crypto holdings from cold storage to Coinbase Prime, which may also hint at a plan to boost liquidity through crypto sales to pursue M&A opportunities. Shares are up 2% as of 4:13 a.m. ET on Friday.

Cohen has a strong incentive to shoot for the moon:

The CEO recently agreed to a package that would tie his pay completely to the company’s market value and the amount of cumulative earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization that the company generates under his leadership.

The proposed deal would see Cohen start to receive stock options in the event that GameStop’s market capitalization exceeds $20 billion while also booking $2 billion in cumulative EBITDA from Q1 2026 onward.

On a closing basis, GameStop has exceeded this $20 billion threshold only during its 2021 meme stock mania. And, due to heavy losses from 2019 through early 2022, it’s taken GameStop a full decade to generate its latest $2 billion in cumulative EBITDA.

Cohen’s pay package has yet to be approved by shareholders, but he’s not waiting for the green light to increase his financial ties to the retailer he runs. Last week, he purchased 1 million shares of company stock for roughly $21.4 million, and opined that any CEO who fails to buy their stock in the open market with their own money should be fired.

Meanwhile, Monday’s revelation that Burry is a GME owner spurred the most retail buying of GameStop shares since late Q1 2025, when the company unveiled its bitcoin treasury strategy, per JPMorgan.