GameStop shares jumped on Monday after news tied to one person. That person is Michael Burry. He is the investor known for betting against the U.S. housing market before the financial crisis. He disclosed that he has been buying GameStop shares again.
The stock rose more than 6% after his comments became public. Michael said he has been buying GameStop recently and sees the price near 1x tangible book value and 1x net asset value. He shared this in a Substack post published Monday.
He also pointed to Ryan Cohen running the company and using capital and cash flow over a long period. The message was simple. This was not a short-term trade and not a meme bet.
Burry lays out a long-term value bet
Michael recently shut down Scion Asset Management. He said this position is a long-term value play. He said it is not based on renewed meme stock action. GameStop became famous about five years ago during a retail trading frenzy.
Online traders pushed prices higher and forced hedge funds to cover short positions. That period ended. Trading later calmed down, and speculation faded.
Michael wrote, “I am not counting on a short squeeze to realize long-term value.” He added, “I believe in Ryan, I like the setup, the governance, the strategy as I see it.” He also said he is willing to hold the stock long-term and be patient. He noted that he is fifteen years older than Ryan and still prepared to wait.
After the meme surge ended, GameStop gave back most of its gains. The stock later traded around $25 a share. Even so, the company used heavy investor interest in the past to raise billions of dollars through equity offerings. Those sales left GameStop with a large cash balance.
Michael addressed that directly. He wrote, “Ryan is making lemonade out of lemons.” He added, “He has a crappy business, and he is milking it best he can while taking advantage of the meme stock phenomenon to raise cash and wait for an opportunity to make a big buy of a real growing cash cow business.”
The video game retailer also started buying Bitcoin last year. The decision followed a similar approach taken by MicroStrategy, now known as Strategy. Ryan said the move was driven by macro concerns.
He said bitcoin’s fixed supply and decentralized design could protect against certain risks. Michael reacted cautiously and wrote, “I do not know about this Bitcoin thing, but I cannot argue with what has been done so far.”
Michael is not alone in backing the company. Just last week, Ryan bought 1 million shares of GameStop. The purchase was disclosed in a Jan. 21 SEC filing. In that filing, Ryan said it is “essential” for a public company CEO to buy shares with personal funds to strengthen alignment with stockholders.
Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.
