Video game retailer GameStop postponed its annual meeting until further notice after technical difficulties prevented shareholders from joining, due to overwhelming demand from fans and investors trying to listen in on the firm’s next moves.
This comes amid speculation that the firm will try to add prominent influencer and investor Roaring Kitty (aka Keith Gill) to its board, after an unverified document announcing the annual meeting of stockholders circulated on social media.
During the meeting, shareholders will have to elect five directors to serve for the next year. Some Roaring Kitty fanatics took this as a sign that the GameStop bull would be added to the board, fueling speculation across social media.
As the planned virtual meeting neared, GameStop (GME) climbed 5% to $27.88, according to Google Finance. However, many stockholders reported that they were unable to get onto the site that was hosting the meeting. Tens of thousands of investors and fans instead flocked to Twitch, YouTube, and Discord streams that promised to rebroadcast the events.
Stream host Computer Share confirmed to CNBC that its servers crashed due to overwhelming demand for the GameStop meeting. After would-be attendees listened to 50 minutes of placid hold music on the stream, the meeting was “immediately adjourned” with the company aiming to give an update “as soon as possible.”
Some attendees were annoyed that they’d wasted their time, but many in the community appeared smug that they could drive so much interest to crash the servers.
Following the meeting postponement, GameStop’s share price is now up nearly 12% on the day to $28.40, despite no update on when the meeting will be rescheduled to.
Keith Gill, better known as Roaring Kitty or DeepFuckingValue, was at the center of the GameStop 2021 short squeeze which saw retail traders rallying behind the video game stock.
After three years of silence he returned to Twitter in May, posting a slew of movie memes before disappearing again after GameStop’s price tanked. Only two weeks later, he returned with a new tweet and, more significantly, a new post on Reddit disclosing his GameStop holdings—totaling $586 million between shares and options.
This set the stage for Gill’s return to YouTube, bringing in 700,000 viewers to his return livestream. Since then, Roaring Kitty mania has continued with people breaking down his posts and speculating on his next move, while he’s mostly been content to keep sharing memes.
Many GME fans believed Gill joining the GameStop board was next. Speculators will have to wait at least another day to find out whether that’s the case.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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