Brick and mortar videogame retailer and popular meme stock GameStop (GME) announced Tuesday that it plans to sell its operations in France and Canada after an “evaluation of its international assets.”
The latest move follows years of declining revenues for the company. The retailer has reportedly shuttered more than 700 of its stores around the world since 2020.
The company announced the move in a brief news release on its website. While the statement did not provide any further explanation of the decision, its CEO appears to have taken issue with the “wokeness” of the two countries.
“Email M&[email protected] if you’re interested in buying GameStop Canada or Micromania France,” Gamestop CEO Ryan Cohen posted to X Tuesday morning. “High taxes, Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Wokeness and DEI included at no additional cost if you buy today!”
GameStop did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment.
The company had a total 203 stores in Canada and 332 in France as of February 2024, according to an SEC filing.
GameStop has already exited its operations in Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria during the 2023 fiscal year, and sold its Italian subsidiary in November of 2024. It reportedly planned to wind down its German operations by January 31, 2025.
According to a December, 2024 filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it “initiated a comprehensive store portfolio optimization review” that may lead to more store closures than the company had seen in recent years.
After struggling to find its place on the digital marketplace, GameStop’s fortunes took a turn for the worse after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the mass-closures of its stores. The same report outlined a drastic drop in third quarter net sales, down 20 per cent to $860 million from the $1.08 billion in the previous year.
