Traders work on the post where GameStop is traded on the ground on the Latest York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Latest York City, U.S., June 12, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
GameStop’s annual shareholder meeting was disrupted by computer problems Thursday, as servers crashed under overwhelming interest within the stream, a customer support representative for the corporate hosting the stream told CNBC.
The meeting, slated to start at 11 a.m. ET, was hosted on ComputerShare, but when people tried to access the event, many received error messages that the page couldn’t load, in keeping with posts made on social media site X and CNBC’s own attempts to access the event.
In response to a YouTube stream from an unaffiliated user purporting to breed the feed, the annual meeting was delivered to order at 11:48 a.m. ET and was “immediately adjourned … because of technical difficulties which have prevented stockholders from accessing the meeting.” GameStop said it would offer an update “as soon as possible” as to when the event can be rescheduled, in keeping with that feed.
GameStop couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
When reached by phone, a customer support rep for ComputerShare told CNBC that it was seeing a “mass amount” of issues from people attempting to access the meeting.
The rep said ComputerShare’s servers gave the impression to be unable to handle the quantity of traffic the meeting had received and weren’t accustomed to the amount of accounts. They added that ComputerShare’s tech team was working to unravel the problem and advised interested parties to try to log in “every 5 to 10 minutes.”
The debacle comes amid a recent meme stock craze that surged when Keith Gill — generally known as Roaring Kitty online — resumed posting on his social accounts after going dark for greater than three years. Gill gained notoriety in the web trading realm for his big bets on the stock, spurring a frenzy amongst retail traders.
GameStop surged 14.4% on Thursday in one other volatile session.
GameStop announced Tuesday that it raised greater than $2 billion in a recent at-the-market equity sale because the video game company took advantage of the revived meme rally. GameStop said it intends to make use of the cash for general corporate purposes, which can include acquisitions and investments.
Traders have been closely monitoring Roaring Kitty’s positioning, as his lively selling could knock the value of the stock.
In late afternoon trading Wednesday, a sell-off in GameStop shares intensified suddenly just because the trading volume spiked in the decision options that Roaring Kitty owns. Call options give the customer the precise to purchase a stock at a specified price inside a selected period. They increase in value if the stock rises above the so-called strike price.
GameStop calls with a $20 strike price and expiration on June 21 traded a whopping 93,266 contracts Wednesday, greater than nine times its 30-day average volume of 10,233 contracts.
The worth of those contracts dropped greater than 40% in the course of the session, while the stock plunged 16.5%.
Roaring Kitty owned 120,000 contracts of those calls, in keeping with a screenshot he shared Monday evening.
It’s unclear if it was indeed Roaring Kitty behind the big volume, but options traders said he may very well be involved given he’s such a big holder of those contracts.
Open interest on those calls, the overall variety of contracts for an asset which have not been settled, has declined to 111,818 contracts as of Thursday morning, already below Roaring Kitty’s original 120,000.
Greater than 47,000 such contracts have modified hands Thursday.
