Traders work at the booth where GameStop is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., on June 12, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
GameStop's The annual shareholder meeting was disrupted by computer problems on Thursday, when servers crashed due to overwhelming interest in the broadcast, a customer service representative for the company hosting the broadcast told CNBC.
The meeting, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET, was held on ComputerShare, but when people tried to access the event, many received error messages stating that the page could not load, according to posts made on the social media site and CNBC's own attempts. to access the event.
According to a YouTube stream from an unaffiliated user purporting to replay the stream, the annual meeting began at 11:48 a.m. ET and was “immediately suspended… 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 feed.
GameStop could not immediately be reached for comment.
When reached by phone, a ComputerShare customer service representative told CNBC they were seeing a “high number” of issues from people trying to access the meeting.
The representative said ComputerShare'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 ComputerShare's technical team was working to resolve the issue and advised interested parties to try logging in “every 5 to 10 minutes.”
The debacle comes amid a new meme stock craze that emerged when Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty online, resumed posting to his social accounts after remaining in the dark for more than three years. Gill gained notoriety in the online trading space for his big bets on stocks, sparking a frenzy among retail traders.
GameStop rose 14% on Thursday in another volatile day.
GameStop announced Tuesday that it raised more than $2 billion in a recent stock sale as the video game company capitalized on the revived meme rally. GameStop said it intends to use the money for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions and investments.
Traders have been closely monitoring Roaring Kitty's positioning, as its active selling could send the stock price tumbling.
Late Wednesday afternoon, a sell-off in GameStop shares suddenly intensified just as trading volume spiked in call options held by Roaring Kitty. Call options give the buyer the right to purchase a stock at a specific price within a specific period. They increase in value if the stock rises above the so-called strike price.
GameStop calls with a $20 strike price and expiry on June 21 traded a whopping 93,266 contracts on Wednesday, more than nine times their 30-day average volume of 10,233 contracts.
The price of these contracts fell more than 40% during the session, while the stock plummeted 16.5%.
Roaring Kitty owned 120,000 contracts of those calls, according to a screenshot it shared Monday night.
It's unclear if it was actually Roaring Kitty behind the huge volume, but options traders said he could be involved given that he is a large holder of those contracts.
Open interest on those calls, the total number of contracts for an asset that have not been settled, has decreased to 111,818 contracts as of Thursday morning, already below Roaring Kitty's original 120,000.
More than 42,000 such contracts had changed hands as of midday Thursday.
