Activision Blizzard CEO Is Taking a 50% Pay Cut

Activision Blizzard CEO Is Taking a 50% Pay Cut

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who has been accused by even shareholder of being overpaid, is voluntarily slashing his salary in half .

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Activision Blizzard CEO Is Taking a 50% Pay Cut

CEO of Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick’s high salary has been a major source of controversy in recent years, but he’s now taking a 50 percent pay cut. Activision has ruffled many feathers in the gaming industry during Kotick’s tenure, leading to many to claim that he is overpaid for the perceived harm done by the company.

The Activision CEO receives millions annually not only from his salary, but also massive bonuses. Kotick has been heavily criticized as a result, with many suggesting he shouldn’t be given these huge payouts while his company semi-routinely lays off hundreds of employees. Activision Blizzard is also well-known for shuttering development studios or moving them around to become less independent support studios for larger franchises, putting an emphasis on just a handful of big-name series rather than a diverse lineup of titles whose IP the company owns. However, this is just the publisher’s public reputation. The huge financial outcomes of Kotick-era Activision Blizzard’s business strategies normally leave investors thoroughly pleased, but even some finance experts questioned if Bobby Kotick is overpaid in 2020.

It has now been decided that Kotick will have his salary split in half, taking it down from $1.75 million to $875k. A recent SEC filing (via GamesIndustry.biz) also noted Kotick will reduce his target annual bonus by 50 percent for fiscal years 2021 and 2022, but Kotick could still receive a bonus of up to 200% of his newly reduced salary under the contract. That may better explain why Kotick’s pay cut is a voluntary one, but it’s a reduced salary nonetheless.

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Despite the pay cut, Kotick will still making a pretty penny. His existing bonuses still seem to be fairly high and could be a cause of controversy should Activision make any unprofitable moves in 2021 or 2022. Following the news, Activision’s stock began to jump over 0.40% after being down over 2% on the week.

Activision will likely have an interesting 2021, as it already reportedly expects the new Call of Duty to underperform. Sledgehammer Games, the team behind Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and WWII, is rumored to be developing the new entry as a sequel to the latter title. The team has only been given about two years at the most to get the game up and running after being pulled off of 2020’s entry, meaning the studio has had one less year to develop an entry in the acclaimed shooter franchise than the usual development schedule allows. Activision has reportedly already started planning a Call of Duty 2021 recovery roadmap in case this year’s entry bombs, so it remains to be seen whether or not Kotick will still collect on those contractual bonuses.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/activision-blizzard-ceo-bobby-kotick-salary-paycut-2021/

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