Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick typically receives millions of stock bonuses each year, depending on the state of the company. He will now get even more for a total payment of nearly $ 200 million, according to CtW Investment Group, a pension fund advocacy organization. And all thanks to a clause in his contract that was recently triggered by the strong performance of the company’s shares throughout the pandemic.
As the Call of Duty The CEO of the manufacturer, Kotick receives bonuses based on helping the company reach profit targets and other milestones. And because 2020 has seen Activision Blizzard share prices rise dramatically as millions have turned to gaming to have fun during the pandemic, it is about to collect all the incentive bonuses he has missed in recent years, in addition to the tens of millions it already earns annually, due to a “shareholder incentive” clause in his contract.
In March 2016, the company’s share price was approximately $ 32 per share. By March last year, it had risen to $ 56, and in the year since the start of the pandemic, it has risen only above, reaching over $ 100 at some point last month, before settling back a little under $ 92. Because the stock was more than double when it was when Kotick’s 2016 employment contract entered into force for over 90 days, the provision “incentive to create shareholder value” was launched earlier this month. “On March 1, 2021, the performance conditions for the four-year performance period from 01.01.17 to 31.12.20 that underlie these performance stock awards were met at the maximum level,” Activision Blizzard reports. the most recent SEC registration.
“While the rise in Activision’s share price is somewhat commendable, as we said last year and we continue to say, this achievement alone does not justify such a substantial remuneration result for CEOs,” said Michael Varner, a researcher at CtW Investment Group. In a phone call with Kotaku, Varner called a “maximum level” payment the c-suite equivalent of a six-minute run and said Activision Blizzard is retroactively awarding Kotick gold medals for its past performance based on the latest share price.
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CtW Investment Group has criticized the CEO’s salaries for many companies, including one of the biggest games of chance. It brought out Kotick’s salary inequity and significant bonuses at last year’s Activision Blizzard shareholders’ meeting and pushed the company’s board of directors to recognize how rich the company’s chief has been for ten years. While Activision Blizzard boasted record sales last summer, Bloomberg reported that some of its employees have begun to share their personal payment information with each other to protest the lack of growth commensurate with the company’s continued success.
Although the pandemic made Kotick even richer, it did not end the layoffs at Activision Blizzard. The company fired about 800 people at the beginning of 2019, followed by hundreds more in the coming months closing his French office, and just yesterday he confirmed that somewhere between 50 and 190 people would be released, including in its sports division, which fought in the last year during the ban on personal gaming events.
Bloomberg reported that the most recently laid off employees will receive year-round health care benefits as part of the redundancy package. He would also receive $ 200 gift cards to Battle.net, I think, so he can still buy the newest Overwatch skins even while they are out of a job and even while their former boss is about to raise millions in additional bonuses.
Activision Blizzard did not respond to a request for comment.