Traders work at the GameStop trading floor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 12, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
GameStop’s The annual shareholder meeting was interrupted by computer problems on Thursday after servers crashed under the overwhelming interest in the stream, a customer service representative for the company that hosts the stream told CNBC.
The meeting, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET, was hosted on Computer Share, but when people tried to access the event, many received error messages that the site could not load, according to posts made on social media site X and CNBC itself. attempts to access the event.
According to a YouTube broadcast by an unrelated user purporting to reproduce the feed, the annual meeting was called to order at 11:48 a.m. ET and was “immediately postponed … due to technical difficulties that have prevented shareholders from accessing the meeting “. GameStop said it would provide an update “as soon as possible” on when the event would be rescheduled, according to that source.
GameStop could not immediately be reached for comment.
When reached by phone, a customer service representative for Computer Share told CNBC that it was seeing a “massive amount” of problems from people trying to join the meeting.
The representative said Computer Share’s servers seemed unable to handle the amount of traffic the meeting had received and were not used to the volume of accounts. They added that Computer Share’s technology team was working to resolve the issue and advised interested parties to try to log in “every 5 to 10 minutes.”
The debacle comes amid a new meme-sharing craze that grew when Keith Gill – known as Roaring Kitty online – resumed posting on his social accounts after going dark for more than three years. Gill gained notoriety in the online trading world for his big bets on stocks, fueling a frenzy among retail traders.
GameStop last traded up 6% on Thursday in another volatile day. The stock gained as much as 10.7% earlier in the session.
GameStop announced Tuesday that it raised more than $2 billion in a recent market equity sale as the video game company benefited from a resurgent meme rally. GameStop said it intends to use the money for general corporate purposes, which could include acquisitions and investments.
Traders have been closely monitoring Roaring Kitty’s positioning, as its active selling could knock the stock price.
In late afternoon trading Wednesday, a selloff in GameStop stock suddenly intensified as trading volume increased in call options that Roaring Kitty owns. Call options give the buyer the right to buy a stock at a specified price within a specified period. They increase in value if the stock rises above the so-called strike price.
GameStop calls with a strike price of $20 and expiration on June 21 traded 93,266 contracts on Wednesday, more than nine times the 30-day average volume of 10,233 contracts.
The price of these contracts fell more than 40% during the session, while the stock fell 16.5%.
Roaring Kitty owned 120,000 contracts of those calls, according to a photo he shared Monday night.
It’s unclear if it was really Roaring Kitty behind the huge volume, but options traders said he could be involved since he’s such a big holder of those contracts.
Open interest in those calls, the total number of contracts for an asset that has not been settled, has fallen to 111,818 contracts as of Thursday morning, now below Roaring Kitty’s original 120,000.
More than 42,000 such contracts have changed hands since midday Thursday.