In an electronic mail despatched to workers and published on Activision Blizzard King’s website, Kotick wrote that he’s enthusiastic about the way forward for the corporate beneath the brilliant inexperienced Xbox umbrella. He additionally wrote that in an effort to facilitate a easy transition, he intends to remain on quickly as CEO of ABK, reporting to the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer.
“Phil has requested me to remain on as CEO of Activision Blizzard King, reporting to him, and we have now agreed that I’ll try this via the top of 2023,” Kotick wrote. Kotick, who grew to become CEO of Activision in 1991, stands to obtain upward of $375 million in compensation now that the deal is finished.
It was anticipated that Kotick would depart Activision Blizzard as soon as Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of the corporate went via. After nearly two years of regulatory hearings, together with an unsuccessful bid by the Federal Commerce Fee to dam the deal, the acquisition was finalized this morning, folding Activision Blizzard’s prolific library of video games into the Xbox household.
In 2008, Kotick engineered the merger of Activision with French developer Vivendi Video games, creating Activision Blizzard. In 2015, Activision Blizzard acquired Candy Crush developer King for $5.9 billion, creating the three-headed gaming behemoth Activision Blizzard King.