Reduced Pay for Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Narrowly Approved by Shareholders

Blizzard Posted 2021/06/24 at 1:35 AM by Archimtiros

$41 million in stock bonusesCEO agreed to cut his base salary and annual bonus by 50%the reduction was not enoughGamesIndustry.biz

Michael Varner, CtW

"Activision will be expected to make even further changes in response to a vote where 46% of shareholders expressed discontent, they will not be able to 'rest on their laurels' solely with the changes they made thus far to Mr. Kotick's pay. Also, this marks the sixth time in the past eight years Activision has received less than 70% support for its Say on Pay proposal, and the 2021 vote is the lowest support the company has received on this proposal in its history."2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders

2021 Annual Meeting

The independent members of the Activision Blizzard Board have determined, based on requests from shareholders, that it is necessary and appropriate to leave voting for the Proposal open in order to provide shareholders with adequate time to review and consider the Company’s recent responses to statements that were published and recirculated about the Company’s executive compensation practices that the Company believed to be misleading, in particular related to CEO and COO compensation. The Board members believe that obtaining informed shareholder feedback related to Activision Blizzard’s compensation policies and practices is of fundamental importance, and therefore, allowing additional time for shareholders to meaningfully participate in the vote better represents their interests.

The Company’s recent responses highlighted the following points and corrections:

Despite exceptional shareholder returns the Company has made significant changes to address shareholder feedback – Meaningful executive compensation changes have been made to address shareholder concerns directly, including an amended and extended contract for our CEO.
The Company has made substantial and sustainable reductions in CEO compensation – The Company’s amended CEO contract has had an immediate and sustainable impact on our CEO’s compensation by:
Decreasing our CEO’s base salary and cash bonus by 50% and putting his target cash compensation at the bottom 25th percentile of the CEOs in the Company’s peer group;
Ensuring that 95% of our CEO’s total compensation is performance-based and fully at risk;
Capping our CEO’s 2021 and 2022 target equity bonuses below the median of the Company’s peer group; and
Ensuring that our CEO’s equity bonuses are shaped, in part, by his success in driving a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace and in making the Company’s operations even more sustainable.

The Company has more closely aligned CEO and shareholder interests – The Company has increased its CEO equity-holding requirement to 50x his base salary, representing among the highest in the S&P 500.
The Company has significantly reduced the 2021 CEO incentive award – The Company’s Compensation Committee, after discussions with our CEO, took a significant step to reduce the originally-anticipated value of his 2021 performance-based equity award – reducing the value of its maximum payout opportunity by approximately 40%.
Previous support for the Company’s Say-on-Pay proposals – Despite some recent claims to the contrary, Activision Blizzard has not repeatedly received low votes on its Say-on-Pay proposals in recent years. In 2019, the Company’s Say-on-Pay proposal received support from 82% of shareholders, and in 2018 it received support from 92% of shareholders.shareholders rejected Bob Iger's $48.5 million compensation package

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Comment by EdyGHe is a multi BILLIONAIRE. He could never make a single penny again in his whole life, and still live like one, his kids live like one, his grand kids live like one. The very fact that he makes more than negative money in itself disgusting. Meanwhile the actual people doing all the real work, making the games and what not, get paid less than minimum wage, can't afford food at the company's own cafeteria, and many of them are homeless.Comment by dragonscanIt doesn't matter. The problem is corporate capitalism, not Bobby Kotick.Comment by draecanaNormally I don't like ranting but this article has absolutely nothing to do with World of Warcraft. I mean, why do we even care about Activision CEO who probably have very few impact on how WoW progresses?Comment by runicpowernow if only they could of reclaimed 50% of his past pay ... then it might matter but w.e :/Comment by artenesseDid you know you can spend as little as $10 to buy shares in ATVI (Activision Blizzard) - and you actually get to vote on some decisions? Don't just watch this type of thing happen. Get involved. Be the change you want to see in the world.Comment by Mikeoxbig01Exactly. He only makes enough money to do whatever the &*!@ he wants now.... Whereas before he could do whatever the @#$% he wants.Comment by ProjectSixamAlways funny seeing edgy boomers looking down on people questioning their "perfect" economic systems as if they think they're flawless.Comment by okay17as I said before many times, it is just public relations. ppl reacted to his earnings in the past months and now we keep seeing these kinda posts + that is not the reason people leaving blizzard/ stop paying for games at least not the main issue? instead of dealing w these b.s., provide ur product in time+ solve easy problems in game, especially wow... Q system of wow is faulty and pushing people away from the game. if u get an achievement early patch, you good! if not, no1 will ever invite you + every1 will ask achievements or IO points or you will end up waiting HOURS! (your precious time!)... SOLO Q, u keep denying , people keep wanting.Comment by MetaAnderReduce removed salary by 75% and give the money to those who make the company run: THE EMPLOYEES!Comment by ShaggypawCEO pay is out of hand versus what it was in the 50's and 60's. Activision could be forward looking and show other tech and entertainment companies what the future of CEO pay should look like. Lower overall compensation and a return to paying employees more for the work they do.Comment by dudejoeyHe still makes more in a bonus than 10,000 of us combined will make in most of our lives. What a crock of horse ^&*! that we are expected to chew on while we constantly pay monthly for this game that falls under the Acti/Blizz banner and doesn't give us half the !@#$ that we want.(Because we all have jobs that let us take two and a half months off each year, right?)Four cents a day. lowest minimum wage in the world"Okay, smart guy, so 10,000 is a ludicrous number that doesn't support my point. What's a more reasonable one?"annualone year(pretend)~Fin~Comment by BirdimanHe makes the vast majority of his wealth off the stock market regardless. Don't let him fool you into thinking he's the next Satoru Iwata. I can guarantee you this money isn't going to go back into the company or even it's employees.Comment by TiffLaceyWowhead really needs TL;DR phrases, so much useless text, SO MUCH we have!Comment by SearinoxRemovedComment by orca2017I like the sentence performace based and at risk..keep on screwing up and your outta here take the newmoney and hire those 2000 dev over diff teams so we can get out of the dark ages of gaming engines and come into
the 21century with shining new game engineComment by Nova5269He still makes more in a bonus than 10,000 of us combined will make in most of our lives. What a crock of horse ^&*! that we are expected to chew on while we constantly pay monthly for this game that falls under the Acti/Blizz banner and doesn't give us half the !@#$ that we want.Comment by KioshanI think blizzard and Activision should split into two separate companies again. And the recent video of Carbot Animation is the materialization of that thought. Since Activision merged with Blizzard we've lost something in WoW.Comment by krbrotenthis is a PR pay cut. as most of his cash income comes from stocks owned. and with increased dividends he is looking at more not less money. just his payroll and payroll bonus was cut.Comment by Nova5269I think blizzard and Activision should split into two separate companies again. And the recent video of Carbot Animation is the materialization of that thought. Since Activision merged with Blizzard we've lost something in WoW.Comment by bikedogRemoved

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