Investor Group Pissed Activision Blizzard CEO Is Getting A $200 Million Payout

Activision Blizzard's CEO will receive a payout thanks to the Shareholder Value Creation Incentive.

[lodossrage]

Executives getting massive payouts while the people that do the real work struggle and get laid off. As usual.....

[kevinsheeks]

mistake post.

[FanboysKiller]

He's definitely not a good person.

[SierraGuy]

You could tell just by looking at his ferret face.

[Eamon]

Bobby Kotick is practically looting the company now.

[frostypants]

I mean...being a CEO of a major corporation isn't an easy job...but $200 million is flat out absurdly high by multiple orders of magnitude.

[DaveZero]

I thought Arsenal were bad keeping Ozil on for 350k a week wages all while they went and fired around fifty staff members.

This guy however is taking the piss.

[lelo2play]

We live in a truly screwed up world.

[ScootaKuH]

We do, but this is capitalism. The alternative is a socialist society and then things would be a damn sight worse

[InUrFoxHole]

Lol. A or B... Only 2 choices exist.

[TakeTori]

Hello, Mr. American

[arkard]

Wow, it's early, but I'm pretty sure this will be the stupidest comment I read today.

[Smok91]

You’re seeing black and white in a gray world

[DOSemp]

@ScootaKuH That's a good point though.

[spicelicka]

Capitalism can be regulated too though, that's why people with high earnings get taxed more. The issue is with loopholes and manipulation which allows them to avoid getting taxed more. In this case he clearly used a loophole based on a clause in his contract.

[IMissJimRyan]

I always amuse myself when capitalists discover capitalism.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

This why government regulation is necessary. Otherwise, the Bobby Koticks of the world are inevitable

[JackBNimble]

The government regulations you're asking for takes the little guy's money and gives it to the corporation's.
Have you had your head in the sand the past year?

Where do you think all that bailout money goes? 10% to everyday Americans and the rest go where ?

[wraith9999]

@JackBNimble you literally have no point except that the current form of government regulation is ineffective at stopping the ridiculously top-heavy class system we currently have, which is exactly what LucasRuinedChildhood was already saying. We need to elect officials who do better, it's that simple.

Doing nothing isn't gonna help

[arkard]

@jack 22% of the bill is direct payments to Americans. Don't fall for GOP propaganda

[The_Sage]

Why should the government be involved in business? Everything they touch they make worse, not better. The only people who should even care about the ridiculous amount of money this asshat got paid are the investors. They have the power to punish the company for making bad decisions. You do not want government involved in anything other than law enforcement and protection of the citizenry. Head on over to Venezuela to see what happens when government control business. You know.... where people have had to eat their own pets because they are starving. The government is fat and happy though. Don't be a lemming.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

@The_Sage

"Head on over to Venezuela to see what happens when government control business."
I live in Ireland, a country which has more regulations than America.

I can't say that I've ever had to eat one of my dogs to survive, tbh. In fact, I could probably stand to lose some weight. haha

Common sense regulations to stop corruption and give protections to workers isn't something to be afraid of, and won't transform a country into Venezuela. Lay off the coke.

[LOGICWINS]

I'd be open to an alternative to capitalism that doesn't cause mass starvation.

[Normann]

Socialism?

[Question_Mark]

If you think socialism could work, you know nothing of history.

[Godmars290]

@Normann:
A mix or balance of the two with a fair mix of responsibility, ethics, common sense and consequences for actions. An acceptance of consequences for actions.

[lodossrage]

@Question_Mark

These are the current countries with socialist policies

China
Denmark
Finland
Netherlands
Canada
Sweden
Norway
Ireland
New Zealand
Belgium

I know history well. And one of the things I DO know is that the ONLY times socialism fell apart is when a Tyrant was elected (which despite China's economy could be another casualty).

But before we get too much into it, do you know what a socialist actually is? And no I'm not asking that to be "smart" or "own". I'm asking because this way I'd know if it's worth having the conversation or not

[LOGICWINS]

@lodossrage

This is my definition. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Socialism: a political/social philosophy or government mandate to provide value in the form of goods/services to groups of people with no requirement for the recipients of these goods/service to provide any value or compensation in exchange for said goods/services.

[lodossrage]

@LOGICWINS

No that's not it.

Socialism is when basic country functions such as government, education, and medical are publicly owned and funded.

[cooperdnizzle]

Normann. That is what logic is talking about. Socialism or communism what ever you want to call it, is indeed what cause poverty on epic levels.

Maybe we could keep cap, but regulate wealth proportions, something like, you can only make ten times, your lowest employee or something.

Thomas Jefferson talked about this a very very long time ago and could see it coming. But what do I know....

[neutralgamer1992]

Question_Mark

If you mean getting things done than yes I do know. China brought 800 million peope from below poverty to upper and middle class. Railroads and roads connecting nations. What is working with democracy?

We have a health system build with grade we have a school system that is broken we have a congress that never gets anything done and just stick to party lines so please do tell me what good is democracy. This country is more divided right now than ever before. People are scared of the word socialism but end of the day countries under socialism are doing much better than countries with so called democracy

one of the largest democracies in the world India let's look at how bad they are managing minorities and their Farmers have been on strike for the past 6 Plus months. Their supreme Court judge told a rapist if he was willing to marry that girl then he won't have to go to jail this is democracy

Amazon not wanting union because it would give more freedom and rights to it's workers is that the definition of democracy?

[WelkinCole]

Depends on how you define capitalism. If you refer to mix economies like most western countries yes I agree.

However fact is there is no completely capitalist countries. If the US is one then their military would be private owned and not publicly owned

[IMissJimRyan]

If ou think captalism is working I dont have a lot to discuss with you.

[Rimeskeem]

Social Capitalism or Nordic Model.

It's what most industrialized nations practice now including Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, and Canada. Pretty much all of these rank top 10 in general freedom (financial, education, rights, etc).

In fact, after the Great Depression of the 30s in the US, many of the same social programs were implemented that those countries currently have. In the last half-century, the US has slowly cut those programs out and increased spending on the military while deregulating economic entities. Give the fight between States and Federal government it's not easy to implement anything on a nationwide scale especially if it opposes what private companies want. Given Citizens United, these private companies can easily loophole their way into "donating" to politicians using Super PACS. These politicians then lie about giving actual tax cuts and give tax cuts to the rich for job promotion even though there is no evidence it actually works.

Basically, the money they use to make tax cuts is the same money they would use to pay for social programs and other regulation to keep people like this CEO from getting a stupidly high payout and base salary.

[DarXyde]

Question_Mark,

I would argue that capitalism with higher marginal taxes and certain sectors of the economy being off the table for capitalist interests by socializing them is an ideal system. Healthcare and public education would be great to socialize; the government is in a far better position to negotiate healthcare costs than insurance companies who are all too happy to deny coverage when you need it. With education, people would be inclined to attend public universities and, by virtue of capitalism and competition, the cost of enrollment at private universities will drop or provide much more in the way of scholarships.

That all said, there's no goddamn reason a CEO needs 200M as a payout. We're living in a world where Activision can recycle assets to cut costs, increase profits, and share that not with the actual creators who got their hands dirty, but the guy who sits in an office and continued to make anti-consumer decisions because the company gets richer, goodwill be damned. F*****g sickening. A 5M payout, I could understand. 8M is overly generous but not outright egregious. But 200M? Really? So you're telling me that he* (meaning no one else) was so valuable to the company that you're going to give him the money to buy 200 homes that cost $1M each?

I have to laugh at how bad this is. No one should be surprised if Kottick dies with his eyes open.

[BlaqMagiq1]

@lodossrage

On top of that Denmark and Norway are considered to be 2 of the happiest countries in the world with their current policies and their economy thriving. The only downside to their economies is the high taxes, but because the average worker there have livable wages and plenty of benefits they can tolerate it. They're clearly doing something right. America can learn from them.

[Chard]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@lodossrage
This, there's plenty of countries that have predominately socialist policies that thrive (referring to your list), and it's always tyrants that screw everyone over, just like in capitalist countries. People only need to pay attention to history, I often recommend "how money destroys nations" to see how countries like Zimbabwe and Venezuela really ended up in the gutter, not the Sky news/American propaganda that often gets regurgitated.

[Godmars290]

Don't you mean deify capitalism?

I mean, if you're in charge, you do get what you've "prayed" for. Especially at the cost of others.

[Imalwaysright]

lodossrage

The only true socialist state in the world is North Korea. Every country you mentioned has a capitalist economy wich disqualifies them as being true socialist states.

[lodossrage]

I said socialist policies, not countries.

You don't have to be a full blown socialist country to have socialist policies.

And no, North Korea isn't even a true socialist country because their government operates as a dictatorship. Which brings me right back to the point that the ONLY time socialism has failed was when a Tyrant reigned over it.

[Imalwaysright]

Ah I missed that and went straight to economy because that's what the conversation was about however your reply doesn't adress what @ Question_Mark has said because he was talking about socialism that just like @ LOGICWINS has stated goes well beyond socialist policies.

North Korea is indeed a socialist state that follows the Juche ideology https://www.time.com/wp-con...

[lodossrage]

If north Korea was a socialist country, then there would be challengers to the Jong Un regime with elections.

[monkey602]

The exact same thing happened last year, And will again next year

[ZwVw]

This was the same case as with AMC CEO Adam Aron getting a pay increase to 21 million amidst the theater chains being in limbo for most of 2020.

Truth of the matter is these sleazy CEO would rather have it with most of the workforce being laid off. Less workers means more money for them.

[Eonjay]

A family member of mine worked security at AMC and was laid off at the same time as the CEO too 21 million.

[neutralgamer1992]

And they just fired more employees

[Mulletino]

Did they need these employees?

[neutralgamer1992]

Does he need to get 200 million in one year? And the employees are the one making the money not him or any other executive

[Mulletino]

Its a legitimate question. In a business you don't pay for or keep employees that you don't have work for.

[Tzuno]

Outrageous!this type of payout should not exist.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

This shit bag makes so much yet I torrent all I can from Blizzard fuck em, same goes for EA 😁 Wheres that Anonymous (hacker group) when you need them, would be great if they hacked his account and drained his 200 mil haha.

[AnotherGamer]

How is he still around?!

[badz149]

CoD is still around, right? There's your answer

[Mulletino]

Haha he’s the best at what he does and everyone plays their games.

[kevinsheeks]

make sure you all go out and support those 70 dollar games so we can pay for those executives while they fire developers citing sales not meeting expectations as they reward themselves million dollar checks.

[Eonjay]

Funny enough just looking at Activision Q12020 rev, about 90% of net booked rev was from digital content and 66% of that's came directly from microtransactions.

[Marcello]

If someone somewhere is being overpaid then someone somewhere is being overcharged.

[DarXyde]

Or, perhaps more directly, underpaid.

And you don't need to look very far for the source.

[Mulletino]

Ya, I’m glad we hold the answer. Don’t buy overpriced goods.

[SegaSaturn669]

Let's be honest. This man deserves it.

[knickstr]

No, the people who make the games deserve it. This guy just sits back and waits for the dev team to finish a game so he can see how many people he can layoff to make the numbers look good for his shareholder buddies.

[isarai]

Oh no! You mean a greedy game company is manipulating more money out of you? Gee i wonder who taught them to do that 🤔

[XiNatsuDragnel]

We live in a cruel world - attack on Titan but seriously this shouldn't be happening.

[UnholyLight]

"they will also get a $200 Battle.net gift card."

What a nice way to remind them they get nothing while Kotick gets an insane 200M cashout.

[sourOG]

People hate but they couldn’t do his job. He’s been the ceo of activision for what, 40 years lol? There is a reason he makes that kind of money. As ceo you get the praise and the blame. That’s just the way it works. He’s scummy but what ceo isn’t? It’s a prerequisite lol. You have to be scum to be a good ceo. At least for a billion dollar corporation. Kotick happens to be one of the best.

[Mulletino]

It’s amazing to me that people don’t understand this. It’s just like pro sports, pay him or someone else will.

[UnholyLight]

Well yeah I know, I actually don't get up in arms about this stuff, I just thought it was kinda funny and sad how they think a $200 Battle.net gift card was a nice send off for the people who got laid off.

[sourOG]

Yeah that’s shitty lol. Better than nothing I guess. Equal to nothing in my eyes but I don’t play blizzard games besides Diablo.

[Imalwaysright]

But I was told that the inflation was going to be the death of Activision! How on earth is it possible that a company that should be struggling financially is going to give such a payout to its CEO?

[WelkinCole]

Somehow $60 games are too expansive to make

[sourOG]

Some CEO at a billion dollar company got a 200 million dollar bonus. This isn’t news lol. The “investor class” is pissed oh they must be new lol. Who is that, the people who spent 500 of their stimmy? Lol... cry more.

[excaliburps]

Kotick can't hear anyone since he's using bills to cover his ears. LOLOL!

[drunkenspy007]

looks like a slimey dude

[Lionsguard]

People don't like this but you know you're already waiting in line for the next CoD or whatever. Nothing will change.

[aaronaton]

He will probably pay more tax on that then the whole of this thread combined in our lifetime.

[seanpitt23]

It’s it’s not a meteorite that ends the world pure greed will and this guy is probably the most greediest SOB out there

[Rimeskeem]

It's almost like unregulated capitalism makes the rich richer or something...

[Flewid638]

Depends. The job of the CEO is to make huge, strategic decisions. Either he's worth the buck or he isn't.

If the investment group (who are are also a collection of rich individuals) are pissed, then the dealings must be shady and/or he isnt worth the bonus.

[Knightofelemia]

Another CEO getting a fat pay cheque nothing new here

[giveyerheadawobble]

Can already see the 'Jimquisition' about this one.

Kotick is a scumbag.

[Positivelypositive]

What these executives make is the reason I can't excuse a price increase on games to 69.99 I just can't.

[yippiechicken]

He's the person in charge of making the decisions that steer the overall direction of a company that made 8+ billion* in revenue in FY 2020. *from quick Google search
That means his bonus is about .025% of total revenue.
I'm not sure how I personally feel about these kinds of payouts, but when looking at the numbers, it doesn't seem to unreasonable?

[addictedtochaos]

Bobby Kotick is a cancer.

[BlaqMagiq1]

This ain't the first time this won't be the last. The rich needs to be taxed more because this will only get worse with no regulations in place to stop this.

[jamesclark1991]

It's sad that this is the world we live in.

[ajax17]

that dude really has a punchable face

[Fritzwochel]

This is why no company should be as large as EA, Activision etc.. It attracts big egos and greed.

[InUrFoxHole]

The guy just looks like a scum bag.

[DaveZero]

That's disgusting and this is the world we live in today. The only difference between chivalry and now is that at least king and queens were honest when they were going to take your money. These fatcats at the top of everything just take, take take, the world makes me sick sometimes that we humans do this to one and other.

200 million, at his age what does he need that for he could easily live off 1 mill for rest of his life.

The way the world is with Covid and what not it's so weak economically that these knob Jockeys could be the final nail in the coffin if they aren't careful.

We will be living our games in real life one day because of greed, Viruses, global warming or whatever wants to destroy the world or will eventually,. Are you all ready for Mad Max because we will see a much better version than VR it's called IR and it doesn't cost a thing apart from your life 🤣.

[DaveZero]

I want to kick his ass, force the lard arse to share his millions. I see what table he sat at when he was young, it was certainly the highest chair in the room and fed with a gold spoon, not silver all while sitting in his XXXL Ivory tower that was bigger than your standard ivory tower.

[GamingSinceForever]

Why get upset about it? The contract is the contract.
It's like signing an athlete to guaranteed money but they don't play like Klay Thompson for example. The contract is the contract.

[anast]

This happens when people beg to be taken advantage of. More people will line up when Activision sends out hiring notices. Inside those companies people step on each other for "10 cent" raises and etc. People voluntarily let this stuff happen, no one really wants to stop it. But clicks for catharsis is sometimes decent money.

[TheVigilanteCode]

World governments who have allowed foreign investments into their country's industries and publicly traded companies, should come to an agreement, stating that NO employee in ANY PUBLIC COMPANY should earn more than 10 million dollars, be it the CEO, Chairman of Directors or ANY other position.

10 million is still high, cut that to 5 or even lower.

[Mulletino]

But let’s not talk about pro athletes. This guy is head of the best selling gaming company and he’s quite possibly the best at what he “does”. Pay him or someone else will, just like in the sports industry. Who are you to determine his value?

[Mulletino]

Blizzard makes some of my favorite games. As long as I can afford them, they are good, and they stay good, then who am I to judge how the company is ran? Once the quality dips I’ll quit buying them and this dude will quit getting paid for what he does. Fairly simple.

[Master of Unlocking]

The thought of all that money they poured to buy all those Call of Duty games and their absurdly expensive DLCs for close to 20 years being used to make that grotesque red-haired clown in a suit even fatter should make COD fans at least demand that Activision then add him as DLC in the next COD as a some sort of bonus enemy character that pops in here and there on the map and emits puffs of banknotes when you shoot him, while quipping some "“you know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further!” all while shrieking when you beat the cr@p out of him or something... That would be fun. At any rate more fun than the online portions of those games usually are.

[CrimsonWing69]

Well, seeing how they just laid off a large amount of employees, I feel like getting "pissed" about a CEO getting a 200 mill payout is justified.