Activision welcomes the new CFO with a cosy sum of $15 million
Activision paid the equivalent of $15 million to Dennis Durkin in exchange for signing an agreement to take up the position of Chief Financial Officer.
Activision has recently terminated the contract with financial director Spencer Neumann, most likely in connection with his talks with Netflix. His duties were taken over by Dennis Durkin, who, in a sense, had already achieved his first success. According to Bloomberg service, Durkin received the equivalent of 15 million dollars for signing the agreement, of which 3.75 million was in cash. The remaining 11.3 million shares constitute a block of Activision shares with limited transferability, i.e. which can be sold only after certain conditions have been met by the recipient. In addition, there is an annual director's fee of $900,000 and a potential bonus of $1.35 million for achieving all goals.
One could say that there is nothing to discuss when we say about salaries of high position representatives in a corporation. It is a shame that this is a negative contrast to recent information about Activision's approach to its related company Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard was instructed by the partner to manage finances in a better way and start saving more funds with making more profit. This could have been the reason why Blizzard offered some employees an annual salary in return for leaving their work.
Last year was not too successful for Activision Blizzard, overlooking another success of the Call of Duty series. The release of Destiny 2 was certainly not a success and the Diablo: Immortal presentation in November effectively discouraged many of the fans of Blizzard Entertainment itself. As a result, the company's shares have been falling for a long time, including by as much as 10% in December alone. Separation from Bungie Software a few days ago is unlikely to improve the company's situation, as is the departure of important employees (including Mike Morhaime, one of Blizzard's fathers). In theory, this could justify the aforementioned measures to reduce costs, even if Blizzard's fans do not look at them with a favorable eye. However, the rich welcome of the new Chief Financial Officer clearly does not fit in with this picture, and certainly does not improve the company's image in the eyes of the players.
