$200m Kotick bonus

[ONCHEhap]

The entirety of Blizzard Entertainment has been as part of a publicly traded company. Going public isn't a killer. People romanticizing developers and using silly scapegoat is the issue. Chaos Studios, Inc. renamed to Blizzard Entertainment around the same time Davidson and Associates acquired the studio in 1994. Since then Blizzard has been part of a publicly traded company in Davidson, Vivendi, and then Activision Blizzard.

Nothing is black and white,and of course going public isn't a guaranteed way to end like that.
It just happens a lot more often than not

[rhorle]

This shows you have ridiculous a 200m bonus is. A 2m dollar bonus would also give every company employee 2k dollars. That's pretty fair for such a profitable company.

To be fair though anyone who has stock in the company has benefited since the stock went from $32 to $92 in 5 years. Just for the sake of numbers $200 million equals around 2 million shares. 5 years ago those shares were only about 67 million. CEO's do make obscene amounts of money across the entire world but those are mostly supported by share holders and companies staying in business.

I have less of an issue with a company doing well seeing big bonuses for the higher ups then when it is a failing company still dishing out high bonuses. Could the pay be equaled out for everyone in the company? Sure.

[rhorle]

Nothing is black and white,and of course going public isn't a guaranteed way to end like that. It just happens a lot more often than not

So it has nothing to do with going public. It just has everything to do with the product you create. Stop clinging to scapegoats. Even a private company can still have investors and equity partners to appease. You just do not have shares listed on a public exchange which is essentially the difference between public and private. One is privately owned and the other is offered to the public to buy.

[Makabreska]

It’s also the system. Did you know that in Germany, companies over 5,000 employees are required to let employees select half the board of directors? In the US, where stockholders hold 100% of the power, so employees work 20% more hours and most of that productivity goes to the stockholders. It’s sad.

If half his board was staffed by employees, his bonus would certainly be lower and there would be fewer layoffs. In the US your job is just a line item. Other countries value humans more.

Welcome to the Corporate America.

[Reinaerd]

190 people sacked instead of their promised 3000 hires, and then they give the posterchild for greed 200 mill.

The American dream never made it out of the 60's.

[Arewn]

Lol this one guy's bonus is enough to pay for 13+million subscriptions to WoW.

If he forgoes his yearly bonus, WoW could be subscription free with no additional monetization.

I'm dumb, see post 65.

[Logwyn]

Going public is one of the big killers,as it means you now are legally obligated to generate profits for investors and shareholders. And shareholders are never satisfied with the amount of money they get

They are not obligated to do any such thing.

[Makabreska]

I mean, he gets paid this much, because he puts so much $$$ in the shareholders pocket, so job well paid I guess? But you gotta laugh at those moments when EA CEO wanted to grant himself another fat bonus after alr getting one, and even shareholders were like "cmon bruh".

[Orwell7]

I won't need to worry about money once my house is self sufficient and a greenhouse at least.

They will find a way to make you pay, don't worry

[Alatie]

i dont know the details of their business practices but blizzard games in year 2000 and even year 2010 were miles better quality/polish/design than the ones in 2020.

It was in a Bloomberg report that the before Activision Blizzard was already underpaying staff the the point they had to skip meals, quality/polish/design all go down the drain if you underpay those who are meant to do it.

[rhorle]

If he forgoes his yearly bonus, WoW could be subscription free with no additional monetization.

This isn't a yearly bonus. There may be other parts of his contract that trigger bonuses though.

“On March 1, 2021, the performance conditions for the four-year performance period from 1/1/17 through 12/31/20 underlying these performance stock unit awards were achieved at the maximum level,”

[Makabreska]

And lets not forget that Bobby boy is also a non-executive director of The Coca-Cola Company.

[Unholyground]

They will find a way to make you pay, don't worry

Just land taxes but that is paid for already with my investments.

[exochaft]

Technically it is. If people stopped paying for products the second they realize they're bullshit, maybe quality would be the go to method to make more money instead of "oh we lost some subs this quarter? throw a mount on the shop" . But as long as people are happy to throw cash to complain on the forums and then throw some more cash at store mounts and at pre-orders 1 year ahead of time that end up disappointing, why try to enforce quality when people give you money anyway? May as well just squeeze some more.

This is akin to the system the Chinese figured out how to oppress people while most of their populace lets it happen: give people a smart phone and some entertainment, and they'll let the tyranny go. The US is going down that road right now, where as long as the federal government gives them cash, they'll just forfeit their rights without a second thought (even the most recent stimulus package cost the average taxpayer more than the checks they received, quite the irony). Corporations can behave in similar fashions, where their customers will put up with anything as long as they get their product... the only difference is that, unlike governments usually, customers and employees are free to do whatever they desire. However, this is why corporations loooove getting into bed with government, regardless of party affiliation, as they can attain a psuedo-tyranny over their customers and the market.

Do I really care what Kotick gets paid? Not really, the company can do what it wants when it comes to paying their employees. Most of the emotionally-charged emotions about this topic tend to be under a false assumption, and that assumption is the employees can't do anything about the situation if they wanted to. They most certainly could, and nothing is stopping the employees from either private unionization or organizing to change work conditions. If an employee really isn't getting paid a 'fair' market value comparable to their individual worth, they can quit and go find another job. Under the same conditions, if the company really does need that person, they'll do what they can to retain them... if not, they'll just cut the person loose.

Again, people have this misguided notion that there's no symbiotic relationship involved (well, if it's government run, it's probably not, hence why public unions tend to be bad because there is no real balance), when actually it's more that people are usually just not willing to actually do something about their situation. People would rather complain about the status quo than actually change it, hoping someone else will do it for them. News flash: corporations and governments will pretty much never change the status quo unless individuals force them to. Asking the government to get involved is pretty much a bad idea, as people's perception of governments is pretty poor, and for good reason. When it comes to this topic, if the employees really feel underpaid or abused, it's up to them do to something about it. As customers, if you feel the employees are being exploited, don't buy their products, simple as that.

[ONCHEhap]

They are not obligated to do any such thing.

A corporation board has a fiduciary duty to the shareholders,that's literally the whole point of this relationship

[Hellobolis]

2020 revenue ~8billion. lets say 2billion profit. so ONE guy gets ballpark 10% of the entire companies profit? ONE guy?

[Gaidax]

Good thing they fired these 50 guys from esports division, so they can afford it (even more).

[sylenna]

I mean......being pleased that someone will die, simply because of their level of success is pretty much Envy & Anger.

their level of success kills joy in the pasttimes they once created. making games like FUT (ea) or pumping out CoDs as fast as possible whilst firing people in a pandemic really makes you a monster. or a wise businessman. somehow the latter is the socially accepted way it goes and it sucks. i wouldn't wish harm on anyone, but the norns really could shorten that thread.

Thats why you dont give such clauses in the contract.

On the other side, I doubt those games would have become better if his bonus went into the developement/improvement/etc.

when a game stands at the crossroads of fun or money and he kicks the devs down the money path.. not the bonus is the problem. he and his entourage are the problem. always have been, always will.

[cuafpr]

I always wonder how many people would turn down his pay for his job...

Like it or not he answers to shareholders, his job is to make them money, they reward him for it at a rate they think will keep him making them money.

[Kallisto]

Let's just hope that some of the people that criticize this aren't the same that go "It's my money" whenever they're flamed for perpetuating a system that encourages this.

It's quite funny that many that will bitch about CEOs, will inevitably rush to the Gen OT and defend the most right-wing republicans who would like nothing more than unregulated capitalism.