Activision CEO Bobby Kotick still gets paid way too much, investment group says | PC Gamer - manoreigerstand

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick still gets paid way too much, investment grouping says

(Pictur credit: Activision Blizzard)

In June 2020, CtW Investment Mathematical group, which "whole shebang with union-sponsored pension funds to enhance long stockholder value," called on Activision shareholders to vote against a projected compensation package for CEO Bobby Kotick. Kotick had received nearly $100 million in combined stock and options rewards alone, executive Dieter Waizenegger said at the sentence, an amount that has "consistently been larger than the total pay (the sum of cornerstone salary, yearly bonus, and equity pay) of CEO peers at similar companies."

(Non that CtW was especially enamored with Activision's competitors: It made a similar complaint about Electronic Humanities a calendar month tardive. The Activision command failed, only shareholders actually rejected the proposed pay packages for EA executives.)

In April of this year, Kotick signed a new employment propagation correspondence with Activision in which he united to cut his base salary and bonuses in half, a move the company said "reflects shareholder feedback, incorporates commercialize primo practices, and continues to directly connect pay to performance." Not that he'll suffer too greatly as a lead: His base salary was still $875,000 after the cut, and bonuses could net him another $1.75 million on top. He's probably got a bit scra stored up from old bonus payouts, too.

Motionless, it's a unfathomable cut, just information technology doesn't choke far adequate for CtW Group. In a financial statement, IT said that the deuce-year term of his employment telephone extension "is too short to significantly impact his total invite out an spread-eagle meter." As a result, it is again calling on shareholders to vote against the "State On Pay" marriage offer, and the re-election of Activision's Compensation Committee chair.

$ATVI quieten at it...We've launched another vote no along their #execpay and likewise their Recompense Committee Chairwoman. Take more here.👇#corpgov https://t.co/EfY4QKXyaN photograph.twitter.com/MzNneXSoNLJune 8, 2021

See Sir Thomas More

"The Compensation Commission did non address longstanding shareholder concerns most executive bear practices at Activision by extending CEO Kotick's contract by less than two long time. Given the repeated opposition to CEO Kotick's pay over the years, shareholders should expect to learn a long-term reform of his compensation over a greater period than merely ane year," the statement says. "The CEO's 2021 fairness award will quicken at uttermost payout level going away most of the compensation reductions to apply to alone one full year, 2022, and as much may only cut across the equity present for close year."

The duration of Kotick's usage telephone extension means that his pay could make up renegotiated again—and presumably up—as soon as April 2023, to a lesser degree two years from now. Furthermore, the period overlaps with Activision's "Shareholder Economic value Creation" incentive programs, the terms of which have already been met for the maximum possible payout. That means "the exclusive wax year for which Mr. Kotick bequeath figure a pregnant equity pay decrease is 2022," CtW Investment Group aforementioned. "In other words, the annex is not long-acting adequate to represent an earnest effort by the Compensation Committee to subdue the CEO's outsize equity pay over a sustained period."

I would never argue that Kotick's pay out is level remotely close to justified, but flat so I wouldn't bet too heavily on the likelihood of shareholders pushing back against it. Activision's share Leontyne Price has been moving in the properly counsel for the past several years, and the company's recent period results were "well forward of expectations," which is wholly that really matters.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, protrusive atomic number 3 a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games happening a cassette-based TRS80. From in that location he graduated to the gloriole days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a localized BBS, learned how to soma PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began composition videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and for some reason managed to ward of getting fired until 2014, when he married the glorious ranks of PC Gamer. He covers altogether aspects of the industry, from new-sprung game announcements and speckle notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.