Bobby Kotick Reelected; Internet Boils
This year's Activision Blizzard investor meeting ended with the re-election of the board of directors (including Bobby Kotick), a noncommittal vote on bonuses and a report on the company's fight against bullying.
Bobby Kotick won't be parting ways with current employer. Activision Blizzard shareholders have voted to re-elect the CEO and other board members.
The vast majority of shareholders voted in favor of extending their "terms of office". This was the case even for Robert Morgado (the company's chief independent director), who had the least support among shareholders. The decision was made during the annual meeting of investors.
Source: Activision Blizzard website.
Bonuses, yes, voice of employees, no
Shareholders also voted on two non-binding proposals. The first concerns the granting of bonus packages to directors (by a majority of 88%). The second related to the creation of a report on the company's actions taken to combat employee harassment and discrimination. This was the idea of Thomas DiNapoli, the New York State Controller, whose representatives some time ago sued the company in connection with the alleged concealment of information about the scandals.
The proposal to appoint an employee representative to the supervisory board did not gain support. Although it was demanded by unions founded by protesting employees, only 5% of employees were in favor of this idea.
Activision Blizzard: no evidence found
The news that Kotick would remain in his post for another year was met with criticism online. The CEO of Activision Blizzard has long earned dislike of the common players, but after scandals dragging on for almost a year even some shareholders of the company criticized Kotick and other board members (including Robert Morgado and Brian Kelly).
Many people were frustrated anyway after the repeated statement from the company, that there was "no evidence" of "reported" harassment being tolerated by Activision Blizzard management. Finally, news of more lawsuits over the company's working conditions has been emerging for nearly a year. Dissatisfaction has been expressed by, among others. the ABK Workers Alliance trade union.
Harassment report under careful consideration
The results of the meeting with investors only added fuel to the fire, not least because of investor support for the management. As mentioned, the vote on the report on the company's fight against employee harassment was non-binding. In other words, it does not obligate Activision Blizzard to take action on the issue.
Activision Blizzard has stated that it wants to "carefully consider" the proposal to "improve the quality of disclosures in the future." However, many people don't really believe in the sincerity of the company's intentions. Especially in the context of, apparently, the overwhelming support of investors for the board, who advised them to reject the whole idea (via Axios).
Some take comfort in the fact that Kotick (and perhaps the rest of the current board) will be gone from Activision Blizzard once the acquisition of the company by Microsoft is finalized. However, we remind you that so far there is no official information on this subject, if not counting a mention in a document about the possible course of the transaction.
