Bobby Kotick’s wife is Nina Kotick however they divorced in past due 2012. The native of Long Island, New York, Kotick is living in California with his circle of relatives.
He has a son Audrey Kotick from his wife.
He then dated Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg from 2016 however break up in 2019.
His current net price is around $Eight billion bucks as of Nov 2021.
His salary is said to be $64,900,000 dollars which he accumulates as being the CEO of Activision Blizzard.
5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
In 2009, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert A. “Bobby” Kotick said that his goal was to “take all the amusing out of making video games.”
The context of this quote used to be that he was once bringing in a host of other people from the packaged items business into the company and that he sought after to instill “skepticism, pessimism, and fear” of the financial downturn into the company tradition of Activision Blizzard, in line with the Escapist.
While he’s considered one of the richest CEO’s in America, his wealth is the result of intense exploitation of employees. Activision Blizzard is known no longer just for large salary gaps but for jettisoning masses of employees every fiscal yr. The corporate has also been accused of fostering a tradition of sexual misconduct.
Here’s everything you wish to have to know:
1. Kotick Is One of the Most Overpaid CEO’s in the U.S.
Non-profit basis As You Sow ranked Kotick as the number one most overpaid CEO in the games industry and ranked him at Forty five on the listing of the most overpaid CEOs in the U.S. In 2018 he made $28.6 million. That’s 306 occasions the average salary of an worker at Activision Blizzard. The extra cost used to be $12.8 million.
Kotick has been the CEO of Activision Blizzard since 1991, in line with his Linkedin profile. He also serves on the forums of The Coca-Cola Company, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Harvard Westlake School.
He is also the co-founder of the Call of Duty Endowment, which is helping veterans to find work after army carrier. Activision Blizzard has donated over $21 million to the non-profit since 2009, which has helped over 25,000 veterans get jobs according to Kotick’s Linkedin.
Activision Blizzard is known for laying off employees in the hundreds at the finish of fiscal years to boost numbers and impress shareholders despite the fact that the corporate makes file sales.
The moderate employee makes one 3rd of one p.c of what Kotick makes ($40 million in 2019), according to investment corporate CtW. Many workers reported making so little at the company that that they had to choose between food and hire.
2. Shareholders Approved of a $155 Million Pay Package for Kotick this Year
54% of Activision Blizzard’s shareholders voted to approve Kotick’s $One hundred fifty five million pay packet in June 2021.
Video gamesIndustry.biz (by means of Eurogamer) reports that the resolution came after CtW beseeched traders not to give approval to the bonus. However, the say-on-pay vote is advisory, because of this that Kotick would have still gotten the $155 million even though he didn’t get shareholder approval.
The 54% approval is down from the 56.8% approval remaining yr and the 58% approval the year before in keeping with Eurogamer.
Kotick halved his wage and goal annual bonus in April 2021, lowering the wage to $875,000 and the bonus to around $1,750,000 for the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years after the company extended his employment thru March 31, 2023, according to MSN. Even then, at the time he was eligible to earn an annual bonus up to 200% of his new salary.
3. Kotick Has Been A Businessman Since He Was a Child
GettyRobert ‘Bobby’ Kotick, president and chief govt officer of Activision Blizzard Inc., speaks onstage at unique the Call Of Duty: Black Ops Launch Party held at Barker Hangar on November 4, 2010 in Santa Monica, California. The birthday celebration was held in party of the sport, which launches on November 9, 2010.
In a profile by means of Forbes, Kotick’s mother mentioned that his occupation in business began when he used to be a baby and he bought her ashtray to his buddy for $3.
As a teen, he delivered sandwiches, restringed tennis rackets, sold wallets, and – in his maximum a success industry venture as an adolescent – rented nightspots and threw events for underage kids. While learning at the University of Michigan, Kotick and his partner Howard Marks began dabbling in the era trade. He said that he abandoned playing video games for excellent in college.
According to Forbes, Activision used to be based in 1979 by way of 4 programmers who left Atari after understanding they were handiest seeing $20,000 a year from a company that was drawing in $60 million. By 1991 the company had $30 million in debt and handiest $2 million in property. Kotick moved in and devised a plan to keep Activision afloat. After making some deals and investments, he moved the company to Los Angeles and started attracting developers and buying studios with guarantees of a fun company tradition. Soon the corporate used to be raking in the money with franchises like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero. Then in 2007 the company merged with World of Warcraft developer Blizzard.
4. Kotick Sent a Letter to Staff Thanking Them for Coming Forward with Allegations of Sexual Misconduct
GettyBobby Kotick, leader govt officer of Activision Blizzard Inc., attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 7, 2015 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Last July, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging that the corporate fostered a culture the place feminine employees are subjected to consistent sexual harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation. The lawsuit used to be made after a state agency investigated the company for two years.
At first, several Activision executives denied the claims in the lawsuit.
Kotick then sent a letter to all workers tanking those that have come ahead with accusations after 1000's of staff signed an open letter calling for the corporate to take the allegations significantly.
“Every voice matters – and we will be able to do a better task of listening now, and in the long run,” Kotick stated.
“Our preliminary responses to the issues we are facing together, and to your considerations, have been, quite frankly, tone deaf,” Kotick endured, relating to how the company instantly denied the accusations when the news broke.
Kotick employed a third birthday celebration legislation company to check their policies and procedures. He additionally promised to analyze each and every claim, create safe listening classes, make sure that hiring managers adhered to variety policies, and overview managers throughout the company.
The third party legislation firm Kotick hired is WilmerHale, a law firm recognized for working with Amazon and serving to companies stop their workers from unionizing according to Kotaku.
Fun fact: Kotick appears in the address book of Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire who went to jail after sexually abusing dozens of feminine minors in keeping with documents obtained by way of Gawker.
California has since expanded its lawsuit to incorporate temporary workers to the feminine full-time employees, according to Axios. The DFEH additionally claims that Activision Blizzard interfered with the investigation via maintaining staff to NDAs and different techniques. They also alleged that group of workers in HR shredded proof of court cases.
5. Kotick Lost a Legal Battle Over a Sexual Harassment Case a Decade Earlier
GettyBobby Kotick, leader executive officer of Activision Blizzard, attends the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 10, 2019 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
In 2006, Cynthia Madvig, a former flight attendant on Kotick’s non-public jet, was once sexually burdened by pilot Phil Berg who created an opressive paintings atmosphere after she rejected his advances, according to Kotaku. Kotick fired Madvig two months after she reported the incidents.
“The guys are unsatisfied with the adversarial atmosphere,” he stated at the time.
Madvig then sued Kotick and Andrew Gordon, who co-owned the jet with Kotick. Madvig settled out of courtroom for $200,000 plus $475,000 for felony fees.
A court later dominated that Kotick and Gordon underpaid their lawyer, Patricia Glaser, who mentioned that they paid her smartly underneath the $1 million in prison charges they owed her, according to the LA Times. The court docket sided with Glaser and awarded her $938,458 plus $479,898 in charges.
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