Video game retailerGameStoppostponed its annual meeting until further notice after technical difficulties prevented shareholders from joining, due to overwhelming demand from fans and investors trying to listen in on the firm’s next moves.
This comes amid speculation that the firm will try to add prominent influencer and investorRoaring Kitty(aka Keith Gill) to its board, after an unverified document announcing theannual meeting of stockholderscirculated on social media.
During the meeting, shareholders will have to elect five directors to serve for the next year. SomeRoaring Kitty fanaticstook this as a sign that the GameStop bull would be added to the board,fueling speculationacross social media.
As the planned virtual meeting neared, GameStop (GME)climbed 5% to $27.88, according toGoogle Finance. However, many stockholders reported that they were unable to get onto the site that was hosting the meeting. Tens of thousands of investors and fans instead flocked to Twitch, YouTube, and Discord streams that promised to rebroadcast the events.
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Stream host Computer Share confirmed toCNBCthat its servers crashed due to overwhelming demand for the GameStop meeting. After would-be attendees listened to 50 minutes of placid hold music on the stream, the meeting was “immediately adjourned” with the company aiming to give an update “as soon as possible.”
Some attendees were annoyed that they’d wasted their time, but many in the community appeared smug that they could drive so much interest to crash the servers.
Following the meeting postponement, GameStop’s share price is now up nearly 12% on the day to $28.40, despite no update on when the meeting will be rescheduled to.
Keith Gill, better known asRoaring Kittyor DeepFuckingValue, was at the center of theGameStop 2021 short squeezewhich saw retail traders rallying behind the video game stock.
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After three years of silence he returned to Twitter in May, posting a slew of movie memes before disappearing again after GameStop’s price tanked. Only two weeks later, he returned with a new tweet and, more significantly, a new post on Redditdisclosing his GameStop holdings—totaling $586 million between shares and options.
Many GME fans believed Gill joining the GameStop board was next. Speculators will have to wait at least another day to find out whether that’s the case.
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