Was Activision in the red? Nope, just a ~13% drop year to year (that everyone had less or more) and their net incomes was up despite of that.
This mean those layoff are just american incompetent management bullshit to magically reduce expense super fast so the shareholders believes they are competent. It's super ineffective long term because you'll ended rehiring as many people eventually and you lose lots of knowledge in the process which means the new hiring will cost you more.
I think what makes me the saddest in all this is that they offered the new CFO up to $15 MILLION in bonuses.
Most of that was in future stock if certain targets were met, wasn't it? Even assuming said targets are met, I have my doubts the stock will quite so big a windfall, and if targets are met one could argue that, at least as far as Acti-Blizz is concerned, it's money well earned.
The whole CFO mess makes for great headlines because to the average person it "feels" wrong, but I doubt that in the real world it's at all relevant to the current situation.
Put another way, correlation, despite The Interent's general insistence to the contrary, does not equal causation and while Bad Optics may make for great headlines and lots of clicks, it's rarely nearly as explanatory as people so desperately want to believe.
The question though: if the targets are met is that down to this one person or is it down to everyone in the company pulling together?
Would the targets have been met if they had promoted the deputy finance guy and only offered them a package worth $5M say? I
When are multi-million salaries - that are often paid regardless of how well a company is doing - to much? Should there be a link to the "average salaries" of the company employees?
Dennis Durkin, Activision Blizzard’s new chief financial officer, is getting a bonus worth $15 million for taking the job. The award consists of $11.3 million of stock and an additional $3.75 million in funds. That's in addition to a $900,000 salary and a $1.35 million target bonus.
Are you kidding? Classic is their last chance to turn the game...
Classic still long ways off. I don't think Classic to turn the game for Blizzard. Classic is doing old content over again, and people will find it fun until endless grind to gear up going turn to many people away.
The real problem that they have is lack of new IPs. The entire company is dependent on older franchises. They need fresh ideas. The new IPs they do have coming out need to hit big to really help them. Like Sekiro. Rehashing and rereleasing Spyro, Call of Duty and Crash is not going to do it.
Same problem with the King leg of the company: Candy Crush etc. A concern analysts had when AB bought King - had AB overpaid etc.
Not Blinking , everything will be fine .. check back in 8/19
Agreed, financially I am not worried for my stock. I consider this trimming the fat more than anything. It is an unfortunate series of events for those laid off and I can personally sympathize, yet it is in part to the developer bloat that many companies experience with success. Once things turn a bit the bloat is trimmed. There are a few things upcoming that will produce for them over the next few quarters. Plus rumor has it that Blizzard has a 'plan' for something different going into 2020.
Good points , and the entire industry is in flux , and we knew this was bound to happen at some point , as it became bloated .. It will settle back down into a good place in the near future
It's surprising and not surprising at the same time. All game companies are struggling and ATVI's missteps at the end of the year are indicative of this happening, long predicted by @DMKano.
The Irish customer service workers who took the year's pay and voluntarily left a few months ago are darned lucky.
I'm so sorry for those who'll lose their jobs. Let's see what Tuesday brings.
Looks to me like just another big company getting milked by investors turned management, at the expense of the product side of the house. It can happen at the biggest financial institutions in the world, and it can certainly happen to a "game company". The bigger the company, the bigger the fall. It's a natural cycle driven by the mighty forces of greed and the ease of corporate raiding.
VisiCorp owned the world when they published VisiCalc, which fell to Lotus, who owned the world when they published Lotus 1-2-3, which fell to Microsoft, who owned the world when they published Windows-based MS Excel, and so on.
Men do not stop playing because they grow old. They grow old because they stop playing. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
I think what makes me the saddest in all this is that they offered the new CFO up to $15 MILLION in bonuses. Couldn't that have better been spent to keep the folks in the trenches employed instead of lining already rich people's pockets?
Oh wait....that's big business, isn't it?
It is modern big business, up to the nineties in the UK anyway such remuneration had to be agreed by shareholders. Just like politicians, once company directors could set their own pay enough is never enough.
The real problem that they have is lack of new IPs. The entire company is dependent on older franchises. They need fresh ideas. The new IPs they do have coming out need to hit big to really help them. Like Sekiro. Rehashing and rereleasing Spyro, Call of Duty and Crash is not going to do it.
Just look at what EA showed up and coming to turn around a bad quarter, all franchises. When you are making this much money you cannot afford to fail and trying anything new raises that possibility.
Dennis Durkin, Activision Blizzard’s new chief financial officer, is getting a bonus worth $15 million for taking the job. The award consists of $11.3 million of stock and an additional $3.75 million in funds. That's in addition to a $900,000 salary and a $1.35 million target bonus.
well I mean to be fair.....if your going to have to deal with a dumpster fire you might as well get paid right?
I think what makes me the saddest in all this is that they offered the new CFO up to $15 MILLION in bonuses. Couldn't that have better been spent to keep the folks in the trenches employed instead of lining already rich people's pockets?
This was inevitable. They got real fat on Wow numbers from some years ago now. That will always create bloat which creates inefficiencies in return. Creativity is then stifled by lack of mobility, it takes too long to get anything done.
All this is addition to a changing market. Never mind the mobile thing, I hate where gaming is right now. Every time I see a new game announced I'm hopeful it's not a battle royal or survival thing. I'm disappointed most of the time. All the big companies have no idea how to deal with this as they are run by business people. None of those people play games thus they have no idea what gamers want.
Even after all this I bet they could get enough in preorder sales to cover the cost of any game they tried to make. The issue, imo, is the fat cats at the top who are unwilling to take any form of pay cut to stabilize their “downfall”.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
If Staples like Call of Duty aren't preventing this, I don't see Apex Legends of Anthem preventing the fall, either. One is going up against the literal industry behemoth, the other is an unknown IP by a studio that's struggling to shrug off the ghosts of a fairly disappointing and widely publicized previous effort.
Activision, Blizzard and King all need new IPs, new games, something different than the same old stuff they've all been cranking out for years. As sorry as I am to see people lose their jobs, maybe the shakeup will lead to a bit more flexibility when it comes to creativity. Probably not, but here's hoping.
Hopefully they start with the infestation of SJW's within their ranks so that they can get back to making games instead of making political statements.
Hopefully they start with the infestation of SJW's within their ranks so that they can get back to making games instead of making political statements.
Trying to think of one good rpg i’ve played in the last 20 years that didn’t involve some sort of political statement in the writing or lore, I failed.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Comments
This mean those layoff are just american incompetent management bullshit to magically reduce expense super fast so the shareholders believes they are competent. It's super ineffective long term because you'll ended rehiring as many people eventually and you lose lots of knowledge in the process which means the new hiring will cost you more.
*clap, clap, clap*
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Would the targets have been met if they had promoted the deputy finance guy and only offered them a package worth $5M say? I
When are multi-million salaries - that are often paid regardless of how well a company is doing - to much? Should there be a link to the "average salaries" of the company employees?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Classic still long ways off. I don't think Classic to turn the game for Blizzard. Classic is doing old content over again, and people will find it fun until endless grind to gear up going turn to many people away.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Luck of the irish.
VisiCorp owned the world when they published VisiCalc, which fell to Lotus, who owned the world when they published Lotus 1-2-3, which fell to Microsoft, who owned the world when they published Windows-based MS Excel, and so on.
Men do not stop playing because they grow old. They grow old because they stop playing. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Joined - July 2004
The ivory tower
All this is addition to a changing market. Never mind the mobile thing, I hate where gaming is right now. Every time I see a new game announced I'm hopeful it's not a battle royal or survival thing. I'm disappointed most of the time. All the big companies have no idea how to deal with this as they are run by business people. None of those people play games thus they have no idea what gamers want.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.