Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will stroll away with a $390 million examine because of Microsoft’s acquisition of his gaming firm — simply two months after workers demanded his firing over the agency’s alleged tradition of sexual misconduct.
Kotick, 58, who is anticipated to depart Activision-Blizzard after the deal is accomplished someday subsequent yr, agreed on Tuesday to sell his company to Microsoft in an all-cash deal valued at $75 billion.
The overwhelming majority of his $390 million payout will come from the three.95 million shares that he owns, based on securities filings.
Since Kotick doesn’t personal any unvested equities, he is not going to be entitled to a change of management fee.
Kotick is claimed to be price an estimated $870 million, according to Forbes.
The software program large’s acquisition of the Santa Monica-based gaming studio that has produced hits like Sweet Crush, Name of Responsibility, and Guitar Hero will make it the third-largest company in the online gaming space behind Tencent and Sony.
Microsoft’s official announcement of the acquisition, the most important within the historical past of the tech large, didn’t point out Kotick.
Kotick, who has helmed Activision-Blizzard since 1991 after he led a bunch of buyers in buying the corporate, will keep on via the transition.
As soon as the deal closes in 2023, “the Activision-Blizzard enterprise will report back to Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.
Kotick instructed the Journal on Tuesday that he’ll “all the time be accessible to make sure that we’re going to have the perfect integration.” He refused to touch upon his future standing.
The Microsoft deal ends a tumultuous interval for Activision-Blizzard. In latest months, the corporate has been scrutinized for its alleged mishandling of complaints associated to reported cases of sexual harassment and discrimination.
In July of final yr, the corporate was sued by the California Division of Truthful Employment and Housing after a two-year investigation discovered alleged circumstances of harassment, discrimination, and a poisonous office tradition.
The investigation accused the agency of tolerating a “frat bro” tradition that included rape jokes, crude feedback, and groping. One feminine worker who was mentioned to have been subjected to abuse died by suicide.
Kotick admitted last summer that the company was “tone deaf” in its response to California’s lawsuit.
In November, dozens of his employees staged a walkout demanding that the board take away Kotick after it was discovered that the CEO knew in regards to the firm’s workplace tradition for years.
In 2006, Kotick is alleged to have harassed one of his assistants before threatening to have her killed. An organization spokesperson mentioned that Kotick “rapidly apologized” for what was described as an “clearly hyperbolic and inappropriate voice mail.”
