Ryan Cohen could be in for a big payday, but he has to grow meme darling GameStop to $100 billion

GameStop has laid retired a a massive, all-or-nothing equity inducement for Chairman and CEO Ryan Cohen that volition lone wage retired if the video crippled retailer's banal and profits soar to levels acold beyond thing it has achieved to date.

The committee of GameStop granted Cohen performance-based banal options tied to a $100 cardinal market-capitalization people and $10 cardinal successful cumulative net earlier interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to a statement released Wednesday.

Under the presumption of the plan, Cohen receives thing unless the minimum thresholds are met, and determination is nary partial recognition if targets are missed. If GameStop fails to scope astatine slightest $20 cardinal successful marketplace capitalization and $2 cardinal successful cumulative EBITDA, nary of the options volition vest.

GameStop shares slid 36% past twelvemonth and the institution presently has a marketplace headdress of $9.3 billion. The institution reported a nett income of $77.1 cardinal successful the 3rd quarter.

If Cohen hits the goals, the full grant volition beryllium for banal options to acquisition 171,537,327 shares of GameStop's Class A communal banal astatine a terms of $20.66 per share.

Cohen, who joined the committee successful January 2021 and aboriginal became CEO, has been the cardinal fig successful GameStop's post-meme-stock transformation.

The institution has made a fewer moves aimed astatine broadening its concern beyond carnal video-game sales, including an enlargement into collectibles, trading cards arsenic good arsenic buying bitcoin aggressively with its firm cash. What remains absent, however, is simply a wide maestro program for however those initiatives construe into the standard of maturation implied by the compensation targets.

The compensation structure, the institution said, is intended to align Cohen's incentives straight with semipermanent shareholder returns by tying his compensation wholly to what it called "extraordinary growth."