Activision Blizzard Shareholders Call for CEO to Be Deprived of Bonuses

The head of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, is one of the highest paid executives in the gaming industry. He earns so much that some of the company’s shareholders have urged other shareholders to vote against Kotick’s FY2019 bonuses.

Dieter Waiznegger, CEO of CtW Investment Group, sent a letter to stakeholders in which he gave three reasons why Kotik should be deprived of the bonus:

Leading proxy voting advisor Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) recommended to not pay Kotick’s bonus, which was also annually recommended by a similar firm, Glass Lewis, from 2012 to 2017.

Despite the low support of the bonus initiative from shareholders, Activision Blizzard still regularly gives Kotick a huge bonus, even if the corporation does not achieve some performance indicators.

Although it was not possible to disclose the results of the company’s short-term development plan, it is known that Activision Blizzard has serious problems in managing human capital.

According to Weiznegger, Kotick has received more than $20 million in bonuses annually for the last four years. In 2019, he received more than $28 million in combined equity, and the total amount over the past four years exceeded $96.5 million.

At the same time, ordinary employees of Activision Blizzard earn on average less than 0.33% of their boss’s income. Some of them, such as junior developers, usually earn about $40,000 a year, living in expensive regions like Southern California, and they are not insured against sudden dismissal.

Voting on Kotick’s bonuses will be held at the annual meeting of Activision Blizzard shareholders on June 11.