Michael Burry and the meme stock. What the Big Short star thinks of GameStop
Time to buy? You decide
Michael Burry, the investor known for betting against US housing before the 2008 crisis, says he is buying GameStop shares again through his Scion Asset Management fund, arguing the stock is trading close to tangible book value.
Burry wrote on Substack that he has renewed confidence in Ryan Cohen’s stewardship, a stance that follows Cohen’s disclosed purchase of 1 million shares and helped lift GameStop more than 12% over the past week.
Burry was an early catalyst for the 2021 meme-stock episode after building a roughly 5% stake and urging buybacks, a campaign that drew Cohen in and later attracted coordinated retail buying aimed at short sellers.
The company’s latest results underline the difficulty of restoring growth in a retail model increasingly bypassed by digital downloads and streaming.
GameStop reported third-quarter net sales down 4.6% year on year to $821 million, below expectations of $987 million.
Hardware and accessories revenue fell 12% to $367.4 million, and software sales dropped 27% to $197.5 million.
Collectibles were the exception, rising 50% to $256.1 million and accounting for 31% of revenue, up from 20% a year earlier.
The stronger mix lifted gross margin to 33.3% from 29.9% and helped deliver operating income of $41.3 million after a prior-period loss.
Even so, reliance on collectibles exposes the business to shifting consumer tastes and does not fully replace declining core categories.
GameStop has also pursued volatile pivots, including an NFT marketplace and a bitcoin treasury strategy.
At the end of the third quarter, it held 4,710 bitcoin, showing an unrealised loss of $9.2 million at the time and a cumulative unrealised gain of $19.4 million, with bitcoin later falling about 20%.
Burry’s renewed interest may sharpen attention on valuation, but the figures suggest any “revival” remains uncertain and tightly linked to execution and sentiment.
