Blizzard CEO Gets Salary Halved - Still Earns Too Much

Bobby Kotick’s Salary Gets Halved but He Can Now Earn More?
Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and his salary have been a hot topic lately. (Credit: Activision Blizzard)

Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will continue to be Activision Blizzard's CEO up until 2023 but his salary has been halved. Despite that, he can still make up for it with bonuses that'll cover the loss.

Over the past year, we've heard more of Activision Blizzard's notorious CEO than we wanted as it wasn't for the best reasons. Bobby Kotick's insane remuneration and bonuses became a hot topic in cyberspace. At the same time, the company's CEO received a fat bonus of almost $30 million Activision Blizzard was laying off hundreds of employees. Note that the $30 million bonus was in 2020, this year he received $200 million and that sparked even more criticism.

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Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick's Salary Halved

It seems Activision Blizzard has finally decided to take a step and reduce Blizzard CEO Kotick's outrageous bonuses – or did they? According to the latest details revealed in an 8-K form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Bobby's salary is getting halved from $1.75 million to $875 000.

Under the Extension Amendment, effective January 1, 2021, the Compensation Committee and CEO agreed to reduce his contractually agreed-upon base salary by 50 percent to align with targets established at the bottom 25th percentile of the Company's peer group, despite the Company's strong relative performance.

The changes to the Blizzard CEO's salary were made thanks to feedback from shareholders and the harsh criticism from the gaming industry as a whole. There is a catch however as the form also includes the possibility of a 200% bonus which would more than make up for the reduction.

The Extension Amendment provides that the CEO shall be eligible to earn an annual bonus for each of fiscal years 2021 and 2022 of up to a maximum of two hundred percent (200%) of his reduced base salary specified above.

Is it all just smoke and mirrors? Maybe, but in any case, it's a good sign that Activision Blizzard are trying to improve their image.

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Tasho Tashev

Law graduate from Sofia University turned gaming journalist. Gaming has always been a passion of mine since I was a kid (shocker I know) so it was only a matter of time before I started writing about it. My high-school...