brian-kelly
Latest
Activision, Vivendi lawsuit settlement amounts to $275 million
Activision Blizzard reached a settlement this week over a shareholder's lawsuit in regards to the Call of Duty publisher's October 2013 buyout. As a result, Vivendi and others will pay $275 million to Activision to settle the litigation, which began in August 2013 before Activision's $8.2 billion purchase of itself from Vivendi was completed. Under the settlement terms, Activision will also add two directors to its board and must change the terms of its voting rights. According to the lawsuit, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly seemingly benefited from insider knowledge of the company's purchase, obtaining a 10 percent discount when Kotick's investment firm purchased 172 million shares of Activision for $2.34 billion. The lawsuit alleged a "breach of fiduciary duties, waste of corporate assets and unjust enrichment." Emails from the suit presented in July revealed that Vivendi wanted to fire Kotick in 2013 during the purchasing negotiations. [Image: Activision]
Activision execs receive millions in bonuses
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and co-chairman Brian Kelly have each received bonuses from the company of approximately $3 million each. Michael Griffith, CEO of Activision Publishing, also received a bonus according to SEC filings, but his was only for around $1.5 million -- poor guy. The bonuses were given due to Activision's incredible success last year.With the Vivendi merger imminent, it's worth noting some analysts find Activision an excellent investment. It's not every day you can clearly point to a game publisher and see guaranteed profits in the near future.
Activision execs reap payday from recent mega-merger
Just in case you weren't feeling a particularly strong sense of class envy today, the Financial Times is reporting that Activision's two top executives will be receiving "change of control" payments to the tune of $40 million, as part of the deal that will see Vivendi merge their Vivendi Games unit into Activision. Both Robert Kotick, Activision Chairman and CEO, and Brian Kelly, co-chairman, will receive bonuses totalling $10 million each as well as 363,637 shares of the newly formed company, worth about $10 million on the market today.While some industry analysts have looked at the deal as an attempt to catch up with EA's runaway growth, particularly in the MMO sphere, one mustn't ignore the immediate financial windfalls for the men at the very top of the company as a motivating factor. One can only hope they'll be down counting their money in time to start developing some more MMO properties for the new year.[Via The Escapist]
