• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Activision spends all of 2018 telling employees to cut costs, then gives $15 million bonus to new CFO.

IDontBeatGames

IDontBeatGames

ThreadMarksman
Member
Oct 29, 2017
16,558
New York
News from Jason Schreier:





Activision Blizzard Inc.'s Dennis Durkin will receive awards worth $15 million as part of his appointment to chief financial officer.

Durkin will get $11.3 million of restricted stock tied to operating income and earnings-per-share targets, and a $3.75 million sign-on bonus, the Santa Monica, California-based company said Friday in a regulatory filing. That's on top of his $900,000 salary and a $1.35 million target bonus.

via Bloomberg
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the industry would be better off without Activision.
 
Vela

Vela

Alt Account
Banned
Apr 16, 2018
1,818
39B8911478790FC153E6FB8FD64DC1920FBC9D70
C
 
MatrixMan.exe

MatrixMan.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,501
ogo.on.the.go said:
This isn't an activision problem, it's a capitalism problem. Compare CEO salaries between North America and Europe and prepare to be shocked.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

As disgusting as this instance is, you're not wrong. In large corporations, salaries and bonuses of this size are pretty common.

This context of this is what makes it especially eye roll inducing.
 
Y2Kev

Y2Kev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,868
I think it is misleading to talk about reducing SG&A (implied to be cash costs) and talk about equity awards. The argument is just as compelling referencing the $3.75MM on top of his regular salary!
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
Pankratous

Pankratous

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,274
The company (non-gaming related) I work for has the exact same problem. Not strictly an Activision problem.
 
tyfon

tyfon

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,680
Norway
MatrixMan.exe said:
As disgusting as this instance is, you're not wrong. In large corporations, salaries and bonuses of this size are pretty common.

This context of this is what makes it especially eye roll inducing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I don't think I've ever seen a bonus or the like for more than the equivalent of $2 million in my country.
$15 million would make the headlines for a week here.
 

aerozombie

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,075
They lost a CFO and needed to quickly find a new one that is competent. You guys understand employment works on supply and demand, and the supply of individuals that can be made CFO's without spooking investors or raising SEC concerns is not exactly high
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
CrazyDude said:
I find it funny how Activision was started by former Atari developers who wanted to escape a greedy corporation only to become one themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's so true haha

This following the news of Bungies departure, just makes me wonder what's in store for Blizzard as Activision is seemingly putting all their stakes into their games. And Call of Duty I guess. Activision CEOs are as greedy as they get.
 
monketron

monketron

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,865
I could maybe understand the need for a golden handshake if they were poaching him from a rival, but for someone to just slide in sideways from the same company, there really isn't a need other than looking out for mates?
 
mescalineeyes

mescalineeyes

Banned
May 12, 2018
4,444
Vienna
aerozombie said:
They lost a CFO and needed to quickly find a new one that is competent. You guys understand employment works on supply and demand, and the supply of individuals that can be made CFO's without spooking investors or raising SEC concerns is not exactly high
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
yes I think the whole thread agrees that the entire system that makes this possible and necessary is fucked.
 
Asbsand

Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
brokeastronaut said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the industry would be better off without Activision.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't disagree, man. Heck, I even practically boycotted them between 2014 and 2017. Intentionally said "fuck that" to every activision game I came across in that period after how they sold D1 and its expansions. (by taking something blatantly shown years ago in previews and delegating it to DLC, while the main game's content took 8 hours to see... for 60 bucks and then 30 dollar expansion pass.)
 

PeterLegend

Alt Account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
180
I'm not surprised, this is Corporate America. The people at the top get all the prizes while the people at the bottom or middle get laidoff/fired.
 
RexNovis

RexNovis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,194
The man literally recieved a signing bonus in excess of 10x the amount of money the average American person makes in their entire lifetimes. Think about that for a moment and ruminate on just seriously broken our entire economic system has become.
 
Ichi

Ichi

Banned
Sep 10, 2018
1,997
This is pretty much any executive in any big company.. disgusting..All the workers do all the work and you sit all day in meetings and get millions of $$$ for your "vision".
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
Asbsand said:
I don't disagree, man. Heck, I even practically boycotted them between 2014 and 2017. Intentionally said "fuck that" to every activision game I came across in that period after how they sold D1 and its expansions. (by taking something blatantly shown years ago in previews and delegating it to DLC, while the main game's content took 8 hours to see... for 60 bucks and then 30 dollar expansion pass.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm highly interested in where Bungie takes Destiny from here on out. It'll be interesting to see if a hypothetical Destiny 3 shares any of the same content release plans as the other two.
 
Odesu

Odesu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,548
So if I see this right this dude basically gave himself millions of dollars to keep doing exactly what he has been doing since 2012.

Dennis Durking was hired as CFO in 2012 with a $1.2 Million Bonus + Stock + further performance based bonuses: https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012...-durkin-takes-over-as-activision-blizzard-cfo

Transitions in 2017 from CFO to CCO with a $3.5 Million Bonus + Stock + further performance based bonuses: https://gulfnews.com/technology/activisions-hires-greeted-with-40m-handshake-1.2026124

Goes back in 2019 from CCO to CFO with a $3.75 Million Bonus + Stock + further performance based bonuses.

Seems nice! Different question: do these guys just decide their own Bonus payments when they are CFO or CCO?
 
Last edited:
haotshy

haotshy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,577
Seems like a very Activision thing to do.

I'm really glad I resisted buying Black Ops IIII during Black Friday just to play Blackout. Such an awful company.
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
Vela said:
all companies do this. It's the nature of capitalism.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Totally, I just wish there were more headlines about those in charge taking pay cuts to help the company when it's struggling; as opposed to things like CFO bonus pay in the midst of clamoring for ways the company can make employees save them money.

I'd rather see more of this
https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendos-ceo-will-halve-his-pay-after-profits-drop-2014-1
Than this Activision news. It makes me respect one company far more than the other.
 
Y2Kev

Y2Kev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,868
SilentRob said:
So if I see this right this dude basically gave himself 18.5 million dollars to keep doing exactly what he has been doing since 2012.

Dennis Durking was hired as CFO in 2012 with a $1.2 Million Bonus + Stock: https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012...-durkin-takes-over-as-activision-blizzard-cfo

Transitions in 2017 from CFO to CCO with a $3.5 Million Bonus + Stock: https://gulfnews.com/technology/activisions-hires-greeted-with-40m-handshake-1.2026124

Goes back in 2019 from CCO to CFO with a $3.75 Million Bonus + Stock.

Seems nice! Different question: do these guys just decide their own Bonus payments when they are CFO or CCO?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is not an accurate depiction. For example, you have Durkin's actual sign on, but you are ignoring his later equity award. For example, read the 2012 proxy statement: https://www.bamsec.com/filing/130817913000253?cik=718877, page 44. You can see Durkin got more than $10MM in equity and option awards!

The new CFO has his base compensation in the linked Bloomberg article.

Again, these are performance-based incentives...
 
The Pharmercy

The Pharmercy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,040
Not exclusive to Activsion but the industry would still be better off if Activision & EA no longer operated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.