CEO Makes $500k Off GameStop Inventory Run, Donates It to Barstool Fund for Companies
With GameStop’s inventory hovering, Social Capital founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya took benefit of the online game retailer’s success and donated the half 1,000,000 {dollars} he apparently made in earnings off of GameStop shares to Barstool Sports activities’ Barstool Fund, which helps companies which can be struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday morning, Palihapitiya tweeted that he was shopping for $115,000 price of GameStop inventory, after asking followers what he ought to make investments a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} in. At the least two folks responded advising GameStop, the price of which has skyrocketed partly as a result of massive names like Elon Musk endorsing the inventory and a rally to get the valuation up by the subreddit r/WallStreetBets.
Palihapitiya tweeted simply after midnight on Wednesday that “at the moment was a enjoyable day,” sharing a meme somebody created about him and Musk following common a r/WallStreetBets consumer’s transfer to put money into GameStop.
Throughout a Wednesday look on CNBC’s Halftime Report, Palihapitiya introduced his plan to donate to Barstool Sports activities’ COVID-19 reduction effort. “This morning I wakened after spending all final night time on Wall Road Bets, studying about all these things. I ended up closing out my positions this morning, and I needed to announce that I am taking all of the earnings that I made plus my unique place—so I am gonna take $500,000—and I am gonna donate to the Barstool Fund for small companies,” he mentioned.
Barstool Sports activities and Barstool President Dave Portnoy tweeted their thanks for the beneficiant donation. A variety of folks on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit have expressed anger with Wall Road hedge funds for shorting shares like GameStop—and that is little question a part of the motivation to drive up the inventory’s worth. A bunch of memes within the sub take glee in upsetting the system during which hedge funds thrive.
Portnoy joked on Twitter that, with this donation from Palihapitiya, he was “the official face of the revolution.” He additionally criticized CNBC’s protection of all the pieces occurring with GameStop’s inventory. “The one time CNBC and the Fits care about safety is when it is the institution getting their tooth kicked in. So long as the massive banks are profitable the inventory market is nice. The second retail takes the wheel it is all unfair,” he wrote.
Palihapitiya responded to Portnoy with the acronym “LFG,” which stands for “Let’s f**king go.”
Portnoy’s made headlines along with his latest efforts to assist small companies, which is a far cry from the controversies which have often put him within the information prior to now. In June 2020, Portnoy launched a video saying that “Cancel Tradition [was] lastly coming for Barstool,” in response to outrage over previous Barstool movies during which Portnoy used the n-word whereas rapping and made disparaging feedback about NFL participant Colin Kaepernick.
In December 2020, Portnoy launched the Barstool Fund to assist small companies that had been struggling as a result of COVID-19 disaster. The so-called “Stool Presidente” established the fund with $500,000 and introduced that he’d supply money to companies that had stored their staff on the payroll by the pandemic. “These folks aren’t going out of enterprise as a result of they are not profitable or not being profitable, it is as a result of they haven’t any different selection. It is as a result of they have been dealt a hand that no person might play,” he mentioned on the time.
Newsweek reached out to the Barstool Fund and Social Capital through e mail for remark.
