While 50 Activision Blizzard employees are out of work, its CEO will receive a huge bonus. Bobby Kotick will be paid $200 million for the fact that the company’s shares continue to grow. However, a group of investors considers such payments excessive and wants to revise the amount of remuneration for the publisher’s management.Bobby Kotick can count on such an impressive bonus thanks to a clause in his contract called “Shareholder Value Creation Incentive”.
At the same time, the amount of the premium is not tied to the achievement of specific indicators by the company.
According to GameSpot, the head of Activision Blizzard will receive payments for several years at once, starting in 2017. At the same time, his salary (excluding bonuses) for 2019 alone amounted to $30 million.
Such large payouts are not liked by investors from CtW Investment Group, which is one of the shareholders of Activision Blizzard. Previously, they have repeatedly criticized the high salary costs and bonuses of the Cat.
“As we stated last year and continue to assert, the growth in the value of Activision shares deserves encouragement. However, this achievement in itself does not justify such significant payments to the CEO,” said Michael Varner, director of executive compensation research at CtW Investment Group.
Last year, a group of investors said that large corporations should think about reviewing the size and principles of compensation to executives. Against the background of the new Kitty award, CtW Investment Group raised this issue again.
According to Varner, several factors affect the growth of the stock price at once, and it is not a fact that all of them are the merit of Bobby Kotick personally. He also noted that 2020 has already become a record year for many gaming companies — largely due to the impact of the pandemic.
The news about the Kitty Award came shortly after it became known about new layoffs at Activision Blizzard. The company has reduced 50 employees, and the total number may be slightly less than 2% of the entire staff (about 190 people).
Reduced employees will be able to count on all necessary payments, including 90 days’ severance pay and annual insurance. Journalist Jason Schreier also noted that in addition to this, dismissed employees will receive another bonus — gift cards Battle.net in the amount of $200.