Updated: Activision CEO Earned $64.9 Million in 2012

[Abomination]

You make the mistake of assuming investors have any connection with reality. It's all about appearances: "Look how much OUR CEO is paid. Aren't WE prestigious?"

I know, no grounds in reality at all.

The company is in bed with Blizzard for fuck's sake... and their revenue producing juggernaut World Of Warcraft.

How a company couldn't be in the black with that type of product on the market just boggles the mind.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I wonder how much EA's CEO will be paid this year?

Oh right, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


I decided to look up and see if Activision had laid anyone off recently, and found this article: http://kotaku.com/5985409/activision-lays-off-about-30-people-saying-there-will-be-fewer-licensed-games-this-year

30 People were laid off already in 2013, although they were mainly paperpushing jobs, not developers. However this statement is very interesting:

Approximately, 30 full-time employees have been impacted globally, which represents approximately one half of one percent of Activision Blizzard's employee population.

So 30 is one half of a percent, 60 is one percent, making approximately 600 the employee population of Activision.

At 80,000 a head you could hire 800 people on that salary.

How do these companies justify layoffs again?

His excessive salary could literally be used to double the number of employees in Activision at $84,000 per person, and still give him over 14 million a year.

Activision. Please fire this man and employ me, I can literally double your workforce without increasing expenses, and you'd only have to pay me a paltry 14 million a year. (That's less than the CEO of Walmart!) PM me if you're interested!

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Stuff likes this just makes me want to cry. No-one should have that much money, let alone this prick.

 

[Zeren]

I wonder how much EA's CEO will be paid this year?

Oh right, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


I decided to look up and see if Activision had laid anyone off recently, and found this article: http://kotaku.com/5985409/activision-lays-off-about-30-people-saying-there-will-be-fewer-licensed-games-this-year

30 People were laid off already in 2013, although they were mainly paperpushing jobs, not developers. However this statement is very interesting:

Approximately, 30 full-time employees have been impacted globally, which represents approximately one half of one percent of Activision Blizzard's employee population.

So 30 is one half of a percent, 60 is one percent, making approximately 600 the employee population of Activision.

At 80,000 a head you could hire 800 people on that salary.

How do these companies justify layoffs again?

His excessive salary could literally be used to double the number of employees in Activision at $84,000 per person, and still give him over 14 million a year.

Activision. Please fire this man and employ me, I can literally double your workforce without increasing expenses, and you'd only have to pay me a paltry 14 million a year. (That's less than the CEO of Walmart!) PM me if you're interested!

While I agree with most of your points your math is a bit off. 60 is %10 if 600. 60 would be %1 of 6000.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

As far as I'm concerned he can keep all that money if he promises to stop smiling in pictures. That picture in the article is creeping me out *shudders*

On topic

I never like hearing about CEO's earning obscene amounts of money when the ordinary people in the company barely earn a fraction of that in their lifetime. Yay capitalism.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

-snip-

While I agree with most of your points your math is a bit off. 60 is %10 if 600. 60 would be %1 of 6000.

Ah bollocks. I thought 600 was a little low. Guess there's a reason I'm not the CEO of a major corporation.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I wonder how much EA's CEO will be paid this year?

Oh right, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Actually he will be getting the same amount he was getting before he stepped down. As part of his severance package he gets two years of pay. Because even though he's gone he is still more valuable to EA than all those schmucks that used to make their games before being laid off for not being executives.

 

[rasputin0009]

Do I think he's a competent CEO? Yes. Do I think he's overpaid? Of course. I love capitalism, and I'm all about CEO's making lots of money for their talents, but I don't think this man is worth that much. He got extremely lucky with Modern Warfare being developed under his roof and with all the right things coming together for the Blizzard deal. Should he reap sonme of the benefits? Yes, but not that much. There are people who can do his job a hell of a lot better.

 

[Double A]

Kotick doesn't deserve that much. He's terrible at just about all the requirements of his job. What the hell did he do to convince the board of directors to give him so many benefits instead of pumping the cash into game development? Hypnotize them?

 

[IanDavis]

Imagine that your job never really stops. You don't have weekends, and going home to see your family doesn't mean jack. If you screw up, you cost hundreds of people their jobs and piss away the money you borrowed from hundreds more. Also, no one will ever hire you again. CEO salaries aren't that ridiculous when you factor that stuff in.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

And this is why I'm hoping for the game market to burn, die, and be reborn free of publishers.

Sadly, it's not going to happen until the console market completely embraces digital distribution, but at least it started moving in that direction. Even if it meant always online consoles, which it doesn't have to, it would be a small price to pay.

 

[90sgamer]

Imagine that your job never really stops. You don't have weekends, and going home to see your family doesn't mean jack. If you screw up, you cost hundreds of people their jobs and piss away the money you borrowed from hundreds more. Also, no one will ever hire you again. CEO salaries aren't that ridiculous when you factor that stuff in.

I think you are the only person in this thread who is able to see the situation sensibly.

 

[Seydaman]

...What the fuck does he spend it all on? Honestly, I'd feel lost with so much money, I'd be like a lvl 50 dragonborn in Skyrim, dafuk do I do with all this? Dump it in a room and roll in it?....Actually...

 

[Seydaman]

Imagine that your job never really stops. You don't have weekends, and going home to see your family doesn't mean jack. If you screw up, you cost hundreds of people their jobs and piss away the money you borrowed from hundreds more. Also, no one will ever hire you again. CEO salaries aren't that ridiculous when you factor that stuff in.

I think you are the only person in this thread who is able to see the situation sensibly.

That is a fair point, one I hadn't considered before. But it should be recognized that him working for that much in just one year means he can live relatively comfortably for damn near the rest of his life, I'd say that more than makes up for the downsides.

Captcha: yes_this is /dog/
Wtf?

 

[TotalerKrieger]

No one should be able to earn that amount of money in their lifetime. It is ridiculous to propose that Mr. Kotick's skills and labour are really that much more valuable than the average employee. Surely he deserves a high salary that reflects his training, skillset and presumed dedication to the enterprise, but well over a 1000x the average US salary is just...really poor distribution of profits.

In comparison, the average neurosurgeon brings in $775,968 per year. So based on compensation, Mr. Kotick is worth about 100 brain surgeons....right that makes sense. I would argue it is far more difficult to find a competent brain surgeon than it is to find a competent CEO. I realize salary does not necessarily represent any sort of professional or societal value, but it does put things into some perspective.

It is even more ridiculous that the company can justify laying off productive employees while also paying their executives such ridiculous salaries.

Capitalism, much like Communism, sounds good on paper but never really works as it was supposed to (with significantly less dire consequences although the developing world might argue otherwise). I doubt Adam Smith would be terribly impressed with the state of modern "capitalism". Concentrating wealth to that degree will only harm our democracy and way of life, while also needlessly forcing the average citizen to make do with inferior public services and lower wages.

 

[Aeshi]

The amount of Sour Grapes in this thread is almost palpable.

 

[walrusaurus]

Obscene amounts of wealth for one person. Just obscene.

And the notion of "incentive pay" or bonuses just for doing your job? If it really worked we'd all be getting it. Instead only the people holding the purse strings receive that cash, and we can see through to what it really is: lining your own pockets.

I'm not defending the amounts here, just wanted to clear something up. Incentive based compensation is actually really common when you work for large corporations. At my office we get paid a low base rate and then our hourly can increase by up to 50% based on perfomance metrics. Its pretty standard practice.

 

[90sgamer]

Imagine that your job never really stops. You don't have weekends, and going home to see your family doesn't mean jack. If you screw up, you cost hundreds of people their jobs and piss away the money you borrowed from hundreds more. Also, no one will ever hire you again. CEO salaries aren't that ridiculous when you factor that stuff in.

I think you are the only person in this thread who is able to see the situation sensibly.

That is a fair point, one I hadn't considered before. But it should be recognized that him working for that much in just one year means he can live relatively comfortably for damn near the rest of his life, I'd say that more than makes up for the downsides.

Captcha: yes_this is /dog/
Wtf?

I believe CEOs are financially liable, unlike every other employee in the company. If the company doesn't do well, share holders can file suit for negligence, fraud, or whatever. Suddenly, all that money earned is gone.

 

[Strazdas]

To be fair, I'd imagine being the CEO of a large company is a pretty hard job. Hence why not everyone is one.
That said, $65 million is a wee bit excessive. I can only guess that since Activision has grown so much under him that he feels he deserves the Lion's share of the profits.

Yes, and he should be paid appropriately. Say 250.000 a year, which brings it over 20.000 a month. But 65 millions, and they say the world is in crysis. its in crysis because somones getting rich if your work.

Imagine that your job never really stops. You don't have weekends, and going home to see your family doesn't mean jack. If you screw up, you cost hundreds of people their jobs and piss away the money you borrowed from hundreds more. Also, no one will ever hire you again. CEO salaries aren't that ridiculous when you factor that stuff in.

Which justify high pay, not ridiculous pay.

I'll say the same thing I say about movie stars and professional athletes when I see people bitching about the crazy money they make. You can only make that much if someone is willing to pay you that much. Whether those people paying you are a board of directors or customers or whoever that money is coming from someone who thinks your value to a particular company or institution is worth said amount of money.

and they are wrong in wanting to pay them so much.

 

[thomaskattus]

Imagine that your job never really stops. You don't have weekends, and going home to see your family doesn't mean jack. If you screw up, you cost hundreds of people their jobs and piss away the money you borrowed from hundreds more. Also, no one will ever hire you again. CEO salaries aren't that ridiculous when you factor that stuff in.

Yes they are still that ridiculous. If you are laying off people and still earning that much as a CEO, you are not doing your job right. If Activision was expanding, showing uber profit, and doing really good. Then yea, I could see it being justified.

But it is not.

OCCUPY ACTIVISION!!!!!