Activision Blizzard, formerly known as Activision is an American video game company that owns Activision, creator of the Call of Duty saga, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk Skylanders among others, and Blizzard Entertainment (Developers of World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, Overwatch among others).
Well, we get an interesting news related to this company. Turns out that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has accepted a significant cut to his base salary and bonuses following shareholder reactions. These are the details that have been shared:
- In 2019, after what Kotick described as a year of “record results”, the company laid off about 800 staff memberswhile simultaneously offering its new CEO prizes worth $ 15 million.
- There have been more layoffs at the company since then and it has been revealed that Kotick will cut its own share of the company’s profits in a move that could be the first of some much-needed positive steps.
- As reported Wowhead (via GameInformer), the new investor documentation reveals that Kotick has agreed to reduce its earnings by 50%, and that the company’s Transformation Transaction Award and Shareholder Value Creation incentives will also end.
- The CEO’s base salary of $ 1,750,000 has been lowered to $ 875,000 and a further 50% bonus reduction is also capped at $ 1,750,000 for each fiscal year in 2021 and 2022. According to the investor document, the new compensation program “reflects shareholder feedback, incorporates market best practices, and continues to directly connect compensation to performance.”
It should be remembered that previously we informed you that Activision Blizzard announced in October 2020 that it would close its office in Versailles, France, where around 400 people worked in 2019. And more recently, specifically last March, it was announced that the company would have laid off about 190 employees due to the impact of the pandemic. Therefore, there is no doubt that it is illogical that while the company must make layoffs on the one hand, its CEO has a millionaire salary on the other. Hopefully this measure serves to improve the company in the future and avoid layoffs.
What do you think?
Via.
