Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is Stepping Down at the End of the Year - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 November 2023 / 5,919 Views
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick announced he will be stepping down at the end of the year now that Microsoft has completed its acquisition of the gaming publisher.
"I have long said that I am fully committed to helping with the transition," said Kotick in an email sent to Activision Blizzard employees today.
"Phil has asked me to stay on as CEO of ABK, reporting to him, and we have agreed that I will do that through the end of 2023. We both look forward to working together on a smooth integration for our teams and players."
Kotick was CEO of Activision from 1991 to 2008 and afterwards became CEO of Activision Blizzard when the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games was completed.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier stated Kotick will leave the company on January 1, 2024 after 33 years being CEO.
As the Microsoft-Activision deal closes, Bobby Kotick says he'll stay on as CEO through the end of the year. On January 1, 2024, Kotick will depart the company he took over 33 years ago — a massive change for the video game industry
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 13, 2023
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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What do you know, the deal is already proving to be great for the industry.
I was expecting this to happen obviously but to announce it right away.. wow :)
off into the sunset with women and cocaine
Great news. In the space of about a week we learned that John Riccitiello (former head of EA) is stepping down from Unity, and now that Bobby Kotick is gone at ABK at the end of the year. Two of the worst gaming CEO's of all-time finally out of our hair. Gamers rejoice.
I’m unfamiliar with this guy, what exactly made him worse than everyone else?
Basically he not only fostered the work culture that created high levels of abuse at Activision-Blizzard, but actively participated in said abuse himself dating back as far as 2006, when he reportedly abused his secretary. Then you've got the way he has ran the company over the years, ruining CoD, Activision's biggest IP, with extreme levels of stupid microtransactions, so many classic CoD fans hate him becuse he made modern CoD basically unplayable for them. Investing so many resources into CoD that all of their other IP's have been left at the wayside, with literally every studio Activision owns working on recent CoD games as their other IP's lay dormant. Blizzard's game output became noticeably worse as soon as they merged with Bobby Kotick's Activision with Kotick being put in charge of the combined Activision-Blizzard. You can find articles dating as far back as 2010 that call Bobby Kotick gaming's most hated man. In spite of that hate the investors have kept him in power this long because despite his many faults, he was good at making them money.
Seems like the sort of person that the video gaming industry is better off without. It’s actually surprising that someone like that could last 32 years as CEO.
He's getting quite the pay off from this sale, doubt he cares what happens really.
Someone else shitty will replace him but for the moment YAY!
The guy is worth around a billion dollars at this point. No chance that he would work for somebody else long term.
And nothing of value will be lost...
goodbye grey sky!
Girl, bye.
How did this clown became CEO of all activ and blizzard is mind boggling
By bringing massive cash for the company
The main culprit is still there, bobby' s long time associate.
Good riddance.
16 millions is what he will get january.
Closer to $400m.
Totillo is saying 14 plus 2 million in shares but some site say its fucking almost 400 million lmao
Don't know what or who Totillo is... It has always been 400M $... Since the start lol I'm pretty sure all sites (not "some") BUT Totillo (again whatever that is) is saying 400$ M too... They even gave the number numerous time during the trial with the FTC.
And even without having the official number, it would be ludicrous to believe that the Activision CEO would get only 16M$ for this...
Tweet:
Kotick's contract affords him certain payments if he's no longer "CEO" (or CEO of new parent company)
That's the "good reason" trigger in the final column here that results in $14.6 million in exit pay
Plus, his stock. As of April, he owned 4.3m shares; could acquire 2.2m more
He is a journo.
"According to that, Kotick will receive a windfall of nearly $293 million for “termination by Activision Blizzard without cause or termination by employee for good reason following a change of control.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/90713973/activision-ceo-bobby-kotick-stands-to-walk-away-with-a-massive-payday-on-his-way-out-the-door#:~:text=According%20to%20that%2C%20Kotick%20will,following%20a%20change%20of%20control.%E2%80%9D
The stock is 400k+ … so even without termination fees you got your 400k right there lol even your linked tweet says 4.4m share (at 95$ the share). I mean it is simple math lol
And again there NO WAY that Kotick will get only 16M from being terminated… and your tweet talks about not being CEO anymore, that’s different from being terminated or even leaving the company (which is what is going to happen)
Just use some judgement lol instead of believing anything you read…
The guy is worth over $7b, i doubt he cares..
That is not correct. It is nowhere near that. More like $1b. Numbers vary, but you can see that his Activision's stake is worth hundreds of millions, not billions, and he has sold hundreds of millions worth of ATVI in the past. There is nothing to indicate that he has multiple billions of dollars of net worth.
In any case, he's still ultra wealthy.
Its estimated since 2021 that Bobbys total net worth is over $8billion
a lot more than that, this guy is about to have a billion dollars!
