GameStop is laying off staff and has fired its CFO

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Since reaching meme stock status, the company has been on a wild ride and has recently been dabbling in Web3 technologies. It has been laying off employees without giving a reason. On Thursday, a number of layoffs, including some from the popular publication Game Informer, were announced by the company and it also fired its CFO.

The round of layoffs was announced in a memo by the CEO. It is not clear how many people are affected or in which divisions, though the memo states that they are making a number of reductions to help us keep things simple and operatenimbly with the right talent in place. The company's headquarters appear to be the focus of the layoffs.

The first line of Furlong's memo states that GameStop is banking some of its future on itsBlockchain group despite the fact that it isn't doing so well right now.

Change will be a constant as we evolve our commerce business and launch new products through our blockchain group. After investing heavily in personnel, technology, inventory and supply chain infrastructure over the past 18 months, our focus is on achieving sustained profitability. This means eliminating excess costs and operating with an intense owner’s mentality.

The company says that it still believes its retail stores are important, and that it is making a significant investment in its employees. The individuals are the core of the company. Details about this investment will be shared in the coming weeks.

The CFO's employment was terminated in a public announcement. He will be replaced by Diana Saadeh-Jajeh.

Game Informer, which is owned by the video game retailer, has been affected by the layoffs. Some staff members are not positive on their social media accounts.

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