Benchmark “Musk style” incentives! GameStop (GME.US) announced the CEO incentive plan, which requires a market capitalization of over 100 billion US dollars to be fully realized

The Zhitong Finance App learned that GameStation (GME.US) announced on Wednesday that the company's board of directors approved a new long-term performance incentive stock option reward for CEO Ryan Cohen. This reward does not provide any guaranteed compensation and is only redeemed when the company achieves aggressive market capitalization and profit targets.

This time, options covering 171,537,327 GameStop Class A shares were granted at an exercise price of $20.66 per share, divided into nine parts. These options are only vested once the market value and cumulative performance profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) targets have been met during the reward period.

The reward milestone starts at $20 billion in market capitalization and $2 billion in cumulative performance EBITDA, then gradually increases by 10% of the total bonus. To achieve full ownership, GameStation needs to have a market value of $100 billion and a cumulative performance EBITDA of $10 billion. This directly links Cohen's potential rich returns to substantial long-term value created for shareholders. Currently, GameStop has a market capitalization of $9.3 billion.

The company emphasized Cohen's role in improving GameStop's balance sheet and operations since joining the board in 2021, and said the program was a “risk-based” incentive designed to drive further transformation rather than traditional wages, bonuses, or equity vested over time.

The award was approved by the Board after consulting an external compensation advisor. Shareholders are still required to vote on this stock option award at a special meeting expected to be held in March or April 2026, at which time Cohen will abstain from voting.

Ryan Cohen is famous for co-founding the online pet retailer Chewy (CHWY.US) in 2011, and scaled it to several billion dollars in revenue before selling it to PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017. He then founded RC Ventures, took a stake in and influenced a number of struggling retailers, the most famous of which was GameStop. Cohen joined GameStop's board of directors in 2021, became chairman the same year, and was named president and CEO in 2023.