** Shares of GameStop GME.N up 0.3% premarket to $22.16 after co secures capital raise to buy bitcoin BTC=
** Grapevine, Texas video game retailer late Thurs announced pricing offering of $1.3 bln 0% 5-yr convertible bonds (CBs)
** Initial conversion price of $29.85 represents approx 37.5% premium to stock's volume weighted avg price (VWAP) from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m ET on Thurs
** GME shares tumbled 22% to close at $22.09 on Thurs, their biggest one-day drop since last Jun, as investors question co's plan to finance its bitcoin pivot
** GameStop's shift mimics that of Strategy MSTR.O, which has tapped the capital markets extensively to hoard the world's largest cryptocurrency
** As of Feb 3, GameStop had $4.8 bln in cash, most of which was collected from ATM ("at-the-market") sales of equity
** Co has nearly $10 bln market cap, per LSEG data
** Through Thurs, shares down 29.5%. They closed at $12.52 a year ago
** Meanwhile, BTC currently trading down 2.5% at around the $85,100 mark. BTC down 10% in 2025 and well off record high of around $109,000 hit in mid-Jan
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)
((lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))
