Ryan Cohen | |
|---|---|
 Cohen in 2019 | |
| Born | 1985or1986(age 37–38) [1] Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Founder and CEO of Chewy (2011–2018) Executive Chairman of GameStop (2021–present) |
Ryan Cohen (born 1985 or 1986) is a Canadian entrepreneur and activist investor. [2] [3] He founded e-commerce company Chewy in 2011, and was the company's chief executive office (CEO) until 2018. Cohen is the chairman and CEO of GameStop. [4] [5]
Cohen was born to a Jewish family in Montreal. [6] [7] He never attended college, citing his father, who ran a glassware company, as his primary inspiration in pursuing an entrepreneurial route. [8] His father died in December 2019. [7]
At the age of 15, Cohen started his first business collecting fees off referrals to various e-commerce sites. In 2011, at the age of 25, Cohen founded Chewy under its original name of MrChewy. [9] Cohen says his inspiration for picking the pet category came from his experience shopping for his poodle Tylee. [10] He cites his father Ted, who ran a glassware importing business, as a mentor. [11] [12] To grow Chewy, Cohen used Amazon’s guidelines for supply chain, logistics and the convenience of shopping online but added a focus on customer service, including hand-written holiday cards, pet portraits, and flowers for deceased pets. [11] In need of capital, Cohen says he originally approached over 100 venture capital firms and was rejected by all of them. [13] [14] In 2013, Cohen secured the company's first outside investment from Volition Capital for $15 million. [15] By 2016, he had raised capital from investors including BlackRock and T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund. [16] That year the company had $900 million in sales and had become the number 1 online pet retailer. [17] By 2017, he raised $350 million and was preparing for an IPO. [18]
In April 2017, PetSmart purchased Chewy for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition of all time. [18] Chewy’s value was credited in part to the company’s relationship with its customers, from handwritten thank you and holiday cards to committing nearly one sixth of its employees to 24-hour customer service. [9] [19] That year Fortune named Cohen one of its "40 under 40" [20] and Vox named him to its Recode 100 list. [21] Cohen remained CEO following the acquisition and operated the business largely as an independent unit of PetSmart. [17] He grew the business to 3.5 billion in revenue in 2018, including 66% of sales coming from customers signed up for automatic recurring shipments, [18] prior to stepping down as CEO to pursue personal goals and spend time with his family. [22] In June 2019, Chewy went public at a valuation of $8.7 billion. [23]
In January 2021, Cohen joined the GameStop board along with two Chewy executives. [24] Cohen was also appointed chairman to lead a new committee in charge of a company-wide transformation. [25] Cohen's appointment triggered a stock rally; within two weeks the stock had increased by 1,500% resulting from a short squeeze. [26] Since then, Cohen has been instrumental in a number of changes at GameStop, [27] including the departure of multiple executives and ten members of the board of directors, [25] and the hiring of multiple Amazon and Chewy executives in leadership positions. [28] He became chairman following the annual shareholder meeting. [7] [29]
On September 28, 2023, Cohen took over as Chief Executive Officer of GameStop. He is receiving no salary for his roles as CEO and chairman. [30] [31]
Following the sale of Chewy, Cohen made a significant investment in Apple, making him the largest individual shareholder of the tech company with 1.55 million shares (6.2 million split-adjusted shares as of August 31, 2020). [2] [32]
In September 2020, Cohen disclosed a near 10% stake in GameStop, [33] making him the company's biggest individual investor. This was later increased to 12.9% on December 17, 2020, through an amended 13D filing with SEC. [34] According to these filings, Cohen's firm, RC Ventures, has expressed willingness to get more involved with the company in order “to produce the best results for all shareholders." [35]
In March 2022, it was disclosed that Cohen had a near 10% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, through his investment company RC Ventures LLC. [36] Between August 15 and 18, his firm sold all of the stock, totaling 9.45 million shares. [37] The profit was estimated at $68 million. [38]
Continuing his investments in GameStop, Cohen acquired 100,000 more shares on March 22, 2022. Adjusted for the stock split, this acquisition represented 400,000 shares. [39]
On June 9, 2023, Cohen bolstered his stake in the company with a purchase of 443,842 shares, equivalent to a $10 million investment. [40]
In 2022, Cohen published a series of children's books titled Teddy based on lessons he learned from his father. [41] He wrote "My father, Ted Cohen, and his lessons have guided me throughout my life. He showed me an exceptional work ethic and an unwavering commitment to delayed gratification. Even though he is no longer with us, his legacy will live on forever. By writing these books, I am sharing his values and passing his wisdom on to my children." [42]
Cohen was named in a federal lawsuit on August 24, 2022 for an alleged fraudulent scheme to artificially inflate the price of Bed Bath & Beyond's publicly traded stock in a pump and dump. The suit alleges Cohen conspired with company CFO Gustavo Arnal to release "fraudulent and misleading SEC filings". It claims damages of $1.2 billion in a class action suit. [43] [44] News about the SEC’s investigation into Ryan Cohen’s trades of Bed Bath & Beyond shares was reported on September 7, 2023. [37]
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded in 1839 as a textile manufacturer, it underwent a drastic restructuring into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the leadership of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger. The company's main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float in a broad portfolio of subsidiaries, equity positions and other securities. Buffett and Munger are known for their advocacy of value investing principles and under their direction, the company's book value has grown at an average rate of 20%, compared to about 10% from the S&P 500 index with dividends included over the same period, while employing large amounts of capital and minimal debt.
Bed Bath & Beyond, currently legally known as 20230930-DK-Butterfly-1, Inc., was an American big-box retail chain specializing in housewares, furniture, and specialty items. Headquartered in Union, New Jersey, the chain operated stores in the United States and Canada, and was once counted among the Fortune 500 and the Forbes Global 2000. The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2023 and liquidated all of its remaining stores, with the last closing on July 30, 2023. Following the retail chain's liquidation, its name was adopted by online retailer Overstock.com, which acquired the company's trademarks in a bankruptcy auction. The name is also still used by the chain's former Mexican division, which is now independent.
Bath & Body Works, Inc. is an American specialty retail company based in Columbus, Ohio. It owns Bath & Body Works, posted $11.9 billion in revenue in 2021, and was listed as 248 on the 2020 Fortune 500 list of largest United States companies by revenue.
GameStop Corp. is an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, and is the largest video game retailer worldwide. As of January 28, 2023, the company operates 4,413 stores including 2,949 in the United States, 216 in Canada, 419 in Australia and 829 in Europe under the GameStop, EB Games, EB Games Australia, Micromania-Zing, ThinkGeek and Zing Pop Culture brands. The company was founded in Dallas in 1984 as Babbage's, and took on its current name in 1999.
HCA Healthcare is an American for-profit operator of health care facilities that was founded in 1968. It is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and, as of May 2020, owned and operated 186 hospitals and approximately 2,000 sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding emergency rooms, urgent care centers and physician clinics in 21 states and the United Kingdom. As of 2023, HCA Healthcare is ranked #66 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Contrarian investing is an investment strategy that is characterized by purchasing and selling in contrast to the prevailing sentiment of the time.
Masayoshi Son is a Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. A third-generation Zainichi Korean, he naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 1990. He is the founder, representative director, corporate officer, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG), a strategic technology-focused investment holding company, as well as chairman of UK-based Arm Holdings.
Wynn Resorts, Limited is an American publicly traded corporation based in Paradise, Nevada, that is a developer and operator of high-end hotels and casinos. It was founded in 2002 by former Mirage Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and is now run by CEO Craig Billings. As of 2020, the company has developed six properties.
PetSmart Inc. is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, and Target. As of 2020, PetSmart has more than 1,650 stores in the United States and Canada. Its stores sell pet food, pet supplies, pet accessories, and small pets. Stores also provide services including grooming, dog daycare, dog and cat boarding, veterinary care via in-store third-party clinics, and dog training. They also offer dog and cat adoption via in-store adoption centers facilitated by the non-profit PetSmart Charities.
Beyond, Inc. is an American online retailer headquartered in Midvale, Utah. Previously known as Overstock.com, Inc., the company acquired and adopted the name of bankrupt big-box retailer Bed Bath & Beyond in 2023. The company sells home decor, furniture, bedding, and many other goods that are closeout merchandise.
Workday, Inc., is an American on‑demand (cloud-based) financial management, human capital management, and student information system software vendor. Workday was founded by David Duffield, founder and former CEO of ERP company PeopleSoft, along with former PeopleSoft chief strategist Aneel Bhusri, following Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft in 2005.
Exor N.V. is a Dutch holding company incorporated in the Netherlands and controlled by the Agnelli family through privately held company Giovanni Agnelli B.V. In 2022, it recorded revenues of more than $41 billion, becoming the 317th largest group in the world by revenue according to the 2022 Fortune Global 500 list. It has a history of investments running over a century, which currently include auto and truck manufacturers Stellantis, Ferrari, and Iveco, agricultural and construction firm CNH Industrial, the association football club Juventus, the international newspaper The Economist, and the Italian media company GEDI Gruppo Editoriale. In May 2023, Exor launched its investment management company Lingotto.
Chewy, Inc. is an American online retailer of pet food and other pet-related products based in Plantation, Florida. Chewy went public in 2019 with the ticker symbol CHWY on the New York Stock Exchange.
eShares, Inc., doing business as Carta, Inc., is a San Francisco, California-based technology company that specializes in capitalization table management and valuation software. The company digitizes paper stock certificates along with stock options, warrants, and derivatives to allow companies, investors, and employees to manage their equity and track company ownership. The company also operates CartaX, a private stock exchange.
Vladimir Tenev is a Bulgarian-American entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, a US-based financial technology services company.
Colin Huang or Huang Zheng is a Chinese businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder and former CEO of the e-commerce company Pinduoduo, which is now the largest agriculture platform in China. Huang is also the owner of at least three other limited liability Cayman companies, including Pinduoduo.
Melvin Capital Management LP was an American investment management firm based in New York City. It was founded in 2014 by Gabriel Plotkin, who named the firm after his late grandfather.
In January 2021, a short squeeze of the stock of the American video game retailer GameStop and other securities took place, causing major financial consequences for certain hedge funds and large losses for short sellers. Approximately 140 percent of GameStop's public float had been sold short, and the rush to buy shares to cover those positions as the price rose caused it to rise even further. The short squeeze was initially and primarily triggered by users of the subreddit r/wallstreetbets, an Internet forum on the social news website Reddit, although a number of hedge funds also participated. At its height, on January 28, the short squeeze caused the retailer's stock price to reach a pre-market value of over US$500 per share, nearly 30 times the $17.25 valuation at the beginning of the month. The price of many other heavily shorted securities and cryptocurrencies also increased.
Apoorva Mehta is a billionaire Indo-Canadian businessman and the founder of Instacart and Cloud Health Systems. Mehta has a net worth of $1 billion according to Forbes, mostly due to his ownership of 28 million shares of Instacart and his stake in Cloud Health Systems.
Stake is an Australian financial services company headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It was founded in 2017 by Matt Leibowitz, Dan Silver and Jon Abitz. Stake predominately offers low-cost brokerage services to retail investors in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and the United Kingdom.