The jolt caused by Microsoft to the gaming industry, after announcing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, raises several questions about the position that Bob Kotick, a more than controversial character for the company, will have.
Just a few hours ago, Microsoft did an epochal announcement for the world of video games, officially unveiling the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Almost 70 billion dollars would have been spent, and the future repercussions that this deal will have are numerous, capable of revolutionizing an enormous amount of aspects of the videogame environment. However, we will still have to wait until at least June 2023 to completely close this matter, and then have to face the complete passage of the various studios and their employees towards the protective wing of the Redmond giant. Among the various possibilities and hypotheses that can be made, there is a fundamental doubt that is raised by many: now that Microsoft will become the owner of Activision Blizzard, Bob Kotick will he still remain CEO of the company?
The future of Bob Kotick with Microsoft at the head of Activision Blizzard
Certainly the members of Activision Blizzard are not all that sad about this change of ownership; in recent months, the company’s reputation has been hit hard by several scandals. And although Activision Blizzard had declared that they wanted to make a radical change of conduct within the company, it was in any case difficult to believe that this would actually happen. with the same executives who started it all. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, however, it seems that Microsoft intends to do a lot of cleaning inside Activision, and perhaps it will start with Bob Kotick. So far there have been no official statements on the fate of the CEO, but Phil Spencer himself said that, once all the brackets behind the purchase are closed, Activision Blizzard will respond directly to the Xbox boss.
Microsoft PR: “Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard… Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming.”
Not 100% clear yet whether Bobby will stay on after the ink dries.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) January 18, 2022
Apparently, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft would come to an agreement, and Bob Kotick would agree to leave his post. However, this will almost certainly happen with the payment of a substantial severance pay, which would reach more than 290 million dollars. This is at least what is denoted in a document sent to investors, where Kotick’s contract specifies the figures he should receive if he is fired. So, even if many will certainly say they are happy with the new turning point that could revive ActiBlizz, it seems that however, there will be no justice for the acts committed by the current CEO. Among other news, there have also been some rumors about how this situation could affect the Activision titles, which will surely be about some kind of exclusivity for the Xbox platforms.
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