Activision Blizzard CEO Criticized For Getting $200 Million During Layoffs

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Following the news of Activison Blizzard laying of a large number of employees last week, it has been revealed that the CEO Bobby Kotick is set to receive a payout of nearly $200 million during the layoffs. While nearly 190 Activision Blizzard employees were let go, being given $200 in Battle.net gift cards as a farewell, it seems that the company is doing well enough to take care of its executives.

Activision Blizzard is known for some of the biggest gaming titles in the industry. The massively successful Call of Duty franchise and World of Warcraft MMORPG are just two of the company’s most popular IPs. Since merging in 2013, Activision Blizzard has continued to grow and expand its reach, developing games like Overwatch to begin expanding into the esports region. However, that initiative was short-lived, with recent layoffs of Activision Blizzard employees, mainly in the esports and live events sectors, as evidence.

According to the CtW Investment Group (via Kotaku), as part of Kotick’s contract as the CEO, whenever the company hits profit targets and other such milestones, Kotick receives a considerable bonus. When Kotick began at Activision in 2016, his contract was written to include millions of dollars in bonuses if the company’s stock was to be doubled during his employment as the CEO. In 2020, Activision’s stock price rose exponentially, with the pandemic having a positive outcome on the gaming industry as more people were forced to stay inside and turned to gaming to occupy their time. Last year the price of Activision Blizzard’s stock price rose up to $100, with the price now sitting at around $92. This triggered the contract’s bonuses clause, with Kotick set to receive over $200 million in 2021 when combined with his annual earnings.

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CtW Investment Group has previously criticized Activision Blizzard’s pay inequality, calling out the company’s numerous CEO bonuses despite mass layoffs of employees over the past few years. In early 2019, Activision Blizzard laid off around 800 people, with many more firings in the months to follow, along with the termination of the entire French office. Even though the company celebrated record sales in 2020, more cuts have been made to jobs across the entire company, with the entire live events and esports departments being fired following Activision Blizzard's decision to pivot away from these sectors following the impacts of COVID-19 on hosting gaming events.

Firing so many employees during a pandemic, all while paying the CEO hundreds of millions in bonuses, is a bad look for Activision Blizzard. In the past, fans had boycotted the company for making unpopular decisions, such as when the company banned a professional Hearthstone player Blitzchung for supporting the protests in Hong Kong. Hopefully, the fanbase rallies around the ex-employees during this difficult time and shows them the support and love they really deserve from the community they worked so hard for.