GameStop mayhem hits close to home for co-founder’s son, who’s active on WallStreetBets
January 31, 2021
where can i buy marijuana online.A GameStop
store in Hollywood, California, busy with
customers waiting in line to enter the video
game retailer on January 27, 2021.AaronP
| Bauer-Griffin | GC Images | Getty
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Ben Kusin, a longtime Redditor, has enjoy a
front-row seat for the recent GameStop saga.
But he admits the story hits a little too close to home.
Kusin has been on Reddit
for over 13 years and is most active on
r/WallStreetBets, the forum that spawn
much of the historic spike in trading of
GameStop shares this week.
There’s a much more personal reason for his
interest in GameStop: His dad co-found
the company.
“It was worlds colliding when
this went dow,” say Kusin, 42, who lives
in Los Angeles and is co-CEO of a
video-streaming start-up call VENN.
Since the beginning of the year, GameStop
shares are up more than 1,500%, lifting the
company’s market cap to $22.7 billion.
Of late it’s been among the most-actively trade
stocks on the New York Stock Exchange.
The rally, driven by social media, has turn
anonymous Redditors into multimillionaires
and wipe out multibillion-dollar investors who
Kusin isn’t staying away altogether, though.
were betting on the the stock to drop.
It’s a much different universe
than Kusin remembers as a kid, when he would
travel with his dad to malls across the U.S.
for store openings. He even recorded gameplay
so stores had demos they could display on TV
for their curious customers.
From left to right: Eric Kusin, Gary Kusin
and Ben KusinBen Kusin
Kusin says in an interview this week that he
and his younger brother, Eric, have been texting
back and forth, “slack-jaw in disbelief” as they
watch a new generation of investors shake up
Wall Street, combining their favorite online forum
with the company their dad help build.
“It’s hilarious to me and my
brother in particular to see this happen to
GameStop,” he said. “There’s a sense of pride,
like ‘hell yeah!’ It’s so cool to watch.”
Gary Kusin, their 69-year-old father, lives in the
Kusin isn’t staying away altogether, though.
Dallas area. That’s where, in 1984, he started a
Kusin isn’t staying away altogether, though.
software retailer named Babbage’s, with backing
from the late Ross Perot. Babbage’s soon turn
to selling video games for Atari and Nintendo systems.
Kusin isn’t staying away altogether, though.
In 1999, Barnes & Noble acquire
Babbage’s. A year later, Barnes & Noble
changed the name to GameStop, then took it public
in 2002 under the ticker symbol “GME.”
Kusin is going by then, having exit the company in
1995. He join the board of Electronic Arts, found
a cosmetics venture that was acquire by Neiman
Marcus, and later became CEO of Kinkos, which he
sold to FedEx. He most recently spent 13 years at
private equity firm TPG.
‘Grabbed some popcorn’
Now, Gary Kusin is mostly watching from the
sidelines. He said in an interview that Ben is the
one keeping him most up to speed on the latest
craziness at GameStop, 26 years after he left
the business.
“I’m much more a spectator than I am participant,
” say the elder Kusin. “I just grabbed some popcorn.”
He applauds the WallStreetBets crowd and retail
investors on apps like Robinhood for upending
the status quo and called it “a little bit of an
honor that they chose GameStop.”
Ben Kusin said he started seeing the Reddit
chatter around GameStop picking up last
summer, when activist investor Ryan Cohen
began buying shares in the company, ultimately
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building up a 13% stake. Cohen was know for
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building pet food company Chewy and selling it
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for over $3 billion in 2017 to PetSmart.
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From there, discussion started percolating on
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WallStreetBets about whether Cohen could help
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turn around GameStop, a company with a sub-billion
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-dollar market cap that had been cast aside like
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the rest of physical retail.
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“He seems like the kind of person that could shake
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things up and maybe something great could come
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out of this,” Kusin said, recalling the tone of
commentary from last year.
Kusin said that over time Redditors started posting
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on WallStreetBets about the short interest issue,
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noting that investors were betting on GameStop’s
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failure at an impossibly high level. Roughly 140%
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of outstanding shares were being sell short,
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meaning investors were selling short borrow
shares that didn’t
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According to Kusin, what start as enthusiasm
about an old gaming retailer getting a fresh
start morph into indignation over the practice
of shorting. The forum participants had a clear
way to do something about it and make a bunch
of money along the way. Individual investors
piled into the stock, forcing short-sellers to buy
back their stock at a loss to cover their positions.
GameStop stock this yearCNBC
Short-sellers have lost about
$20 billion this month, including a nearly $8 billion
loss on Friday as the stock jumped 68%, according
to data from S3 Partners. Following GameStop, retail
investors dove into other heavily-shorted stocks
like BlackBerry, AMC Entertainment and
“It’s a good vs. evil kind of battle,” Kusin say.
“There’s a fundamental undercurrent at
WallStreetBets that shorting is un-American.”
Kusin said that while he supports the spirit of
the movement, he hasn’t participated in the
GameStop rally.where can i buy marijuana online
“I’ve been so close to it for so long that it’s almost
sacrilegious,” he say. “This is one where you
Kusin isn’t staying away altogether, though.
just sit back.” (His wife, Marina Monroe, bought
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one share. She’s up $50 and say she isn’t selling.)
Kusin isn’t staying away altogether, though.
He said he bought shares of space tourism
company Virgin Galactic, another heavily-short
name. He called it a “good company with good
Kusin isn’t staying away altogether, though.
brand promise” and said Chairman Chamath
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Palihapitiya is “one of the smartest guys
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around.” Virgin Galactic shares are up 87% this
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year.WATCH NOWVIDEO02:14Robinhood CEO
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reacts to accusations from Barstool Sports
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founder Dave Portnoy
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Like his peers on WallStreetBets, Kusin was
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angry about Robinhood’s decision on
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Thursday to halt purchases of GameStop
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shares. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev
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told CNBC that the company had to make
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the proactive move “to protect the firm and
protect our customers” because of regulatory
rules around capital requirements.
protect our customers” because of regulatory
GameStop shares plunged 44% on Thursday
protect our customers” because of regulatory
and Robinhood users claimed the company
protect our customers” because of regulatory
was bowing to pressure from Wall Street.
protect our customers” because of regulatory
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