Pet supplies entrepreneur Ryan Cohen has been buying up GameStop stock to help spark a turnaround at the brick-and-mortar video game retailer, feeding a frenzy among retail traders who are expecting massive gains.
Jamel Toppin for Forbes
GameStop shares ended Tuesday up 93%, lifting Cohen’s fortune to an estimated $1.7 billion.
Fueled by a massive short squeeze pinning Reddit traders against a storied Wall Street short-seller, a mindblowing rally in GameStop shares has minted a new billionaire in Ryan Cohen, an activist investor eager to forge a turnaround for the brick-and-mortar gameseller.
According to regulatory filings, Cohen—the founder and former CEO of Chewy, a booming e-commerce firm focused on pet supplies–spent about $76 million buying up more than 9 million GameStop shares at the tail-end of last year as he mounted an effort to restructure the Grapevine, Texas-based firm.
“Unfortunately, it is evident that GameStop currently lacks the…