US Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will receive $15 million in compensation if he leaves the company for no reason. If corporate culture improves, then Kotick is entitled to $22 million worth of shares.
Last year, Kotick was accused of ignoring complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination at the publisher's studios. Against the background of the scandal, several leading developers and dozens of ordinary employees left the company or were fired from it.
In the middle of last month, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.
Activision Blizzard is now aiming to implement a zero tolerance for harassment plan, and the company intends to increase the hiring of women and non-binary people. Last October, Kotick cut his salary to the California minimum wage to address toxic behavior problems at the company. The publisher has decided to opt out of forced arbitration.
According to the commission's document, Activision Blizzard's board of directors may extend Kotick's contract for another year after it expires in March 2023. However, an Axios insider reports that the CEO will not stay with the company for long after the Microsoft merger.
The regulator's document also shows that Microsoft's head of gaming, Phil Spencer, entered into negotiations with the publisher three days after the company's harassment scandal began. At that moment, the price of AB shares was equal to $80; during the month of negotiations, the price of the security increased to $95. Kotick owns 6.5 million shares worth $619 million at a price announced by Microsoft.
The regulator reports that four other companies have approached AB for the acquisition. The company expects a sharp increase in profits to $2.5 billion in 2023, probably due to the release of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV.
In the middle of last month, against the background of the announcement of the purchase of AB, Kotik said that this deal would have a positive impact on the development of the publisher. In his opinion, the merger with Microsoft was inevitable.
The day after that, Bloomberg, citing its own source, reported that Kotick would leave the post of CEO of AB after the completion of the deal with Microsoft in 2023.
bbabo.Net