GameStop’s board has approved a performance-based equity award for CEO Ryan Cohen that grants him options to purchase up to 171,537,237 shares at an exercise price of $20.66 per share. The package eliminates all guaranteed salary, cash bonuses and time-vested stock awards, making Cohen’s entire compensation contingent on achieving specified market capitalization and cumulative EBITDA targets over a multi-year period. Shareholder approval is expected at a special meeting in March or April 2026.

The award is structured in nine tranches, each representing between 10% and 15% of the total grant. The first tranche vests only if GameStop’s market capitalization reaches $20 billion and cumulative EBITDA hits $2 billion, up from trailing-12-month EBITDA of $222 million and a market value of roughly $9.5 billion. The final tranche requires a $100 billion market cap and $10 billion in cumulative EBITDA, implying an almost elevenfold increase in valuation and a growth in EBITDA more than forty-five times the current run rate.

Under Cohen’s leadership since January 2021, GameStop’s market capitalization rose from $1.3 billion to $9.5 billion and the company swung from net losses to generating $422 million in net income over the trailing year. However, revenue declined 12% to $3.8 billion and competition in e-commerce, collectibles and digital asset investing remains fierce. Investors face a binary outcome: either Cohen delivers a transformative turnaround and unlocks multi-billion-dollar value, or the incentive plan lapses with no vesting, making GameStop a high-risk, execution-driven equity proposition.