Now that the Microsoft acquisition is complete, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, is set to leave the company after the end of this year.
In an email sent to employees and published on Activision Blizzard King’s website, Kotick wrote that he’s excited about the future of the company under the bright green Xbox umbrella. He also wrote that in order to facilitate a smooth transition, he intends to stay on temporarily as CEO of ABK, reporting to the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer.
“Phil has asked me to stay on as CEO of Activision Blizzard King, reporting to him, and we have agreed that I will do that through the end of 2023,” Kotick wrote. Kotick, who became CEO of Activision in 1991, stands to receive upward of $375 million in compensation now that the deal is done.
It was expected that Kotick would depart Activision Blizzard once Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of the company went through. After almost two years of regulatory hearings, including an unsuccessful bid by the Federal Trade Commission to block the deal, the acquisition was finalized this morning, folding Activision Blizzard’s prolific library of games into the Xbox family.
In 2008, Kotick engineered the merger of Activision with French developer Vivendi Games, creating Activision Blizzard. In 2015, Activision Blizzard acquired Candy Crush developer King for $5.9 billion, creating the three-headed gaming behemoth Activision Blizzard King.
These last few years of Kotick’s tenure as CEO saw the company beset by discrimination lawsuits, unprecedented organization activity, allegations of union busting, unfair labor practice complaints, several walkouts, layoffs amid record profits, and petitions from employees for Kotick to resign.
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