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obby Kotick Net worth and Salary: Robert Bobby Kotick is an American businessman who has a net worth of $600 million. Kotick is famous for being the CEO of Activision Blizzard. He first became CEO of Activision in 1991 and later orchestrated the company’s merger with Blizzard in 2008.
Outside of his involvement in the video games industry, Bobby serves on a number of company boards, the majority of which have been tech companies. He was once the director of Yahoo! and currently serves as a non-executive director of The Coca-Cola company. In addition, he once served on the board of the Tony Hawk Foundation.
Early Life: Robert A. Kotick was born in 1963. He was raised in New York and became interested in business and entrepreneurship at an early age. He created his first business cards while he was still in junior high, and when he reached high school he was already running his own business. After graduating from high school, he studied art history at the University of Michigan.
areer: Kotick’s career got started in the early 80s while he was still a student at the University of Michigan. He started a tech company with a friend in their dorm room, and together they created software for the Apple II. After the duo received a $300,000 investment in their software company, Steve Jobs heard about them and paid Kotick and his friend a visit. Jobs advised them both to drop out and focus on software, and they did just that.
After a number of lackluster attempts to break into the video game industry, Bobby finally succeeded in purchasing a 25% stake in Mediagenic, the company that would later become known as Activision. By 1991, he was CEO of the newly-established company and he led them to an accelerated rate of growth. Activision later became famous for the incredibly successful “Call of Duty” video game franchise.
In 2006, Kotick oversaw a merger with a number of video game development companies such as Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment. After the merger, Bobby became the CEO of the new company, which was called Activision Blizzard. Since the merger, Blizzard has become known for video game series such as “Diablo,” “World of Warcraft,” and “Overwatch.”
During the latter part of the 2010s, Kotick focused more on esports and established the Overwatch League. In 2017, it was announced that Bobby Kotick had become the longest-serving head of any publicly-traded tech company. Bobby’s recent expansion efforts include the production of video games based on Activision Blizzard’s most popular video games.
alary: In 2020, it was revealed that Bobby Kotick took home approximately $40 million for the previous year (2019). This includes a base salary of $30.1 million (down from $31 million in the previous year), plus added bonuses, perks, and stock options.
Kotick’s salary has reportedly grown since then, as his income reflects the success of Blizzard stocks – which have soared in 2020. As of 2020, Activision Blizzard is a publicly-traded company with a market cap north of $50 billion. One non-profit organization listed Kotick in its list of 100 most overpaid CEOs in the United States.
tock Sales: According to company filings, in the two decades between January 2000 and March 2020, Bobby has sold roughly $450 million worth of Activision stock. A large chunk of that windfall came in August 2016 when he sold $347 million worth of his shares.
As of 2020, Bobby owns just under 4 million Activision Blizzard shares and 70,000 Coca-Cola shares. As of 2020, his 4 million Activision Blizzard shares are worth $288 million. Over the past two decades, he has sold approximately $350 million worth of his shares. His Coca Cola shares are worth $16 million.
Blizzard employees came forward with accusations of extreme wage disparity, specifically using Kotick’s inflated salary and total yearly earnings as an example of this disbalance. While Bobby was raking in seven-figure sums thanks to successful games like “Overwatch,” “Diablo,” and “World of Warcraft,” the employees who were actually creating these games were paid comparatively low wages. Bobby Kotick is paid approximately 320 times as much as the average Activision Blizzard employee, who earns $97,000 per year.
Individuals came forward with shocking stories. Some of these employees were skipping meals due to their lack of available funds. Some reportedly “binged” free coffee served at the cafeteria as a way to suppress their appetites. One employee even admitted that they chose not to have children because of their low wages.
Many were surprised to hear that relatively few people on the Blizzard payroll were earning six-figure salaries, especially considering its success and dominance within the video games industry. An official statement from Blizzard stated that “top performers” received higher salary increases than previous years, and that more employees received promotions than in previous years.
However, it was later discovered that these salaries had increased by less than 10%. In addition, one year prior Bobby Kotick had laid off over 800 workers – even though the company was producing record profits at that time. The wage disparity within Blizzard is a microcosm of what’s happening throughout the rest of the video game industry, as similar stories are emerging within other game studios. Many employees are voicing a desire to become unionized.
That said, Bobby Kotick did provide his personal phone number and email to all Blizzard employees if they ever needed to chat about their issues. So there’s that.
In addition, Bobby Kotick’s entire business model at Activision Blizzard has drawn considerable criticism. His expressed goal is to focus on titles that can be monetized over a long period of time, and he avoids games that cannot guarantee the creation of sequels. At the end of the day, Kotick is all about business and releases games based on the bottom line rather than their artistic value.
In 2009, he caused a stir when he mentioned “If it were up to me, I would raise the prices even further.” He was responding to a question about Activision Blizzard raising the prices of its games. Although the comment was made as a joke, it was seen as insensitive due to the fact that most consumers were struggling with a global recession at the time.
On the other hand, Kotick also threatened to stop making games for the PS3 unless Sony cut the price of the console. This was also in 2009. He also launched a number of initiatives that support small video game developers and has expressed a desire to “keep the passion in game development.”
Robert A. Kotick
| Net Worth: | $600 Million |
| Salary: | $30 Million |
| Date of Birth: | 1963 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Profession: | Businessperson |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
| Last Updated: | 2020 |
