GameStop saga continues as CFO Jim Bell announces resignation, taking severance pay 4x his yearly salary

In the wake of the internet’s newest hobby of bankrupting billion-dollar stock trading firms, GameStop CFO Jim Bell has decided to abruptly announce his resignation from the company.

At GameStop, where I own 0.000000323529412% of the company 💰 pic.twitter.com/IOYIcgxdvp

— Mexican Rug Dealer (@DealinRugs) February 23, 2021

Many have criticized the fact that his resignation came with a $2.8 million severance pay, almost double what he made by leading GameStop for the last two years. Despite GameStop losing the leader that many believed would help the company shift towards a digital space, GameStop stock is resting around the $48 mark, still significantly higher than when Bell began his tenure at the retailer.

GameStop, Reddit, and Wall Street

Roughly a month ago, Bell presided over what ultimately became the biggest financial battleground between billionaires and, of all people, Redditers. After the subreddit r/WallStreetBets discovered that many Wall Street firms were shorting GameStop stock, Redditers were able to individually buy GameStop stock en masse, sending the stock price soaring and causing the short sellers to lose billions.

As this battle took place, Americans watched on as billion-dollar investment firms struggled to keep up with individual Redditors, many of whom used the money they earned to pay bills or fund charitable drives.

Billionaires, malcontent with the prospect that they might lose a fraction of their obscene wealth, took to the media to complain that normal people, who were traditionally excluded from the stock market, were able to use the same tricks many of these billionaire firms had exploited for decades.

friendship ended with gamestop, smyths is my friend now

— duhhhhhhthí (@capallcaillte) February 24, 2021

Maybe it was all just too much

Jim Bell’s resignation from GameStop, which will go into effect on March 26th, comes in the wake of what was arguably the company’s most tumultuous time. While the short-selling investment firms and Redditers might have known what their goals were, it was hard for GameStop to tell where exactly the company would stand in the wake of it all.

GameStop stock was treated more as a commodity, to be bought and sold like anything else, and less like a means of investing in the company. Even now, it is difficult to say exactly where GameStop stands, how much capital it has, or whether or not the company has a future.

For Jim Bell, now must have seemed like as good a time as any to cash out to the tune of $2.8 million.

Of course, Bell’s severance didn’t just quadruple his yearly salary. It comes paired with a significant amount of GameStop stock itself, giving Bell almost $30 million in value for quitting the company he was expected to lead.