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A new report by non-profit organisation, As You Sow, has revealed that Activision’s Bobby Kotick and EA’s Andrew Wilson are amongst some of the highest paid CEOs in the US, ranking 45th and 98th respectively in the listing.
The annual report (via GI.biz) calculates the most "overpaid" CEOs by "identifying the company, the CEO and his pay as reported at the annual shareholder meeting, and the pay of the company’s median employee".
By these measures, Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick is the most "overpaid" CEO in the US games industry with a reported salary of $28,698,375 – that’s 306 times more than the average Activision employee – with 92 per cent of shareholder voting against this package, As You Sow states this is an "excess" payment of $12,835,277. EA CEO Andrew Wilson, on the other hand, is thought to have been paid an "excess" of $19,673,861 given 97 per cent of shareholders voted against his package of $35,728,764. This means he’s paid 371 times more than the average EA employee.
For more, check out the full report. Fleetcor Technologies Inc tops the charts as the most "overpaid" CEO, with brands like Disney and Mattel securing spots in the top ten, too.
This is unlikely to be good news for Game Workers Unite, an organisation that is calling for the resignation of Activision CEO Bobby Kotick after the developer/publisher laid off almost 800 staff despite reporting record results in 2018. Rumours that Activision Blizzard would announce "hundreds" of redundancies during its investors call were proved correct last week when the company announced it would be laying off 775 staff in order to "centralise functions and boost profits" – almost 8 per cent of its global workforce.
The layoffs came despite CEO Bobby Kotick confirming the company "once again achieved record results in 2018", but given the company had fallen short of its 2018 expectations and has had to lower those for 2019, it would be consolidating and restructuring, including revising the line-up at senior levels of the organisation.
