Gamestop's (GME) stock price has plunged in the past 24 hours after the company announced lower-than-expected quarterly results along with the abrupt dismissal of CEO Matthew Furlong. Gamestop's successor has not been named, but the company's largest investor, Ryan Cohen, has been named executive chairman. Following these announcements, Gamestop missed its regular quarterly earnings call with investors.

All of this clearly did not inspire confidence in what was going on over there. The quarterly results showed a loss of $50.5 million (17 cents per share) for the first fiscal quarter, but equally troubling was an 11% year-on-year decline in sales to $1.24 billion. Since these announcements, the stock has lost about 20% of its value and is now worth only about a quarter of what it was at the time of the meme stock surge in early 2021.

Gamestop's press release announcing Furlong's departure was an exercise in icy corporate brevity. The release reads:

"Today, Gamestop's Board of Directors announced the appointment of Ryan Cohen as Executive Chairman. Mr. Cohen's responsibilities will include oversight of capital allocation and management.

"Accordingly, our former CEO has been terminated.

Furlong will at least be able to console himself with a hefty payout; GameStop said in a separate filing (thank you.) that Furlong was fired without cause and will be paid all unvested shares that should have vested in the next six months, MarketWatch) that Mr. Furlong would have been eligible to receive $2.5 million in stock in August, but who knows how much it will be worth by the time he gets it.

This is due in part to the wild swings in game-stop stocks since the meme stock surge of early 2021. One of the major investors in these events, who later told Congress, "I understand very little about these things," was a huge financial story surrounding a business that many had dismissed. r/WallStreetBets during this stock surge, which was organized largely by a subreddit called WallStreetBets, GameStop's share price rose to $81 a share in January 2021 and then stabilized somewhat between $50 and $60 for most of the same year. Since then, it has continued its gradual decline, and following recent events, the company's shares are currently trading around $20 a share.

Ryan Cohen is an activist investor and was one of those who got in during the surge. He was appointed to Gamestop's board of directors at this time, and his latest role appears to be "overseeing capital allocation and management." Shortly after the announcement, Cohen tweeted, "It won't last long."

Uh... If I owned stock in Gamestop, I might sell it after seeing that.

Michael Pachter, managing director of Wedbush, wrote in an upbeat note to clients in response to the news and earnings, "We believe Gamestop is doomed," and his price target of $6.20 (!) Pachter said that GameStop is a business "in which physical software sales are declining and sales are shifting to subscription services and digital downloads," and that its fate is set.

Pachter said the company "lacks clear direction" and called Furlong's firing "callous," while Cohen said it "will be difficult to attract a capable replacement." And here's the sobering word for what's going on in the boardroom: "Without a competent management team, there is no hope for a turnaround."

Of course, it is easy to laugh at such things, but the consequences are real. This meme stock collapsed an entire hedge fund that held a short position in GameStop, triggered a congressional hearing, some people had great success with it, and according to the latest r/wallstreetbets thread on this news, many small investors are still losing money. The business itself seems to think blockchain is the future. Sell, sell, sell!