Bobby Kotick Steps Down as Activision Blizzard CEO
Once all the formalities of the merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have been completed, Bobby Kotick will cease to be CEO of the latter company. For now, however, it is unclear whether he will leave its ranks altogether.
As a result of the announced finalization of the Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft the former's current CEO, Bobby Kotick, will cease to hold that position. However, this won't happen right away - we know from an email Kotick sent out to AB employees that he will remain in office until the end of 2023. As he wrote:
Source: Twitter / The Snitch.
Does this mean that on January 1, 2024, Bobby Kotick will officially leave Activision Blizzard? The person concerned did not specify this, vaguely suggesting that perhaps he will then switch to another role in the company. Commenting on the matter, however, Jason Schreier - a popular industry journalist who has sometimes given advance information from behind the scenes, later reflected in reality - wrote on Twitter/X:
More specifically, Kotick - along with Philips Electronics and Steve Wynn - has bought a company called Mediagenic, whose publishing brand was actually Activision. This acquisition took place in 1991. (some 32 years ago), and Kotick immediately became the CEO. A year later he renamed the entire company Activision, and in another twelve months he went public with it. The name Activision Blizzard, on the other hand, has been in place since 2008, when the merger between Activision and Blizzard Entertainment was completed.
Returning to the present and the acquisition of AB by Microsoft - shortly after its announcement, back in January 2022, there were reports that Bobby Kotick was to lose his CEO position immediately after the Redmond giant finalizes the deal. It was said at the time also that the aforementioned Phil Spencer is unhappy with the style and quality of Kotick's "CEOing" (this somewhat casts doubt on the latter's words quoted in this news, although it should be remembered that a lot could have changed in the several months that have passed since then). This was related, among other things, to the ignorant attitude of Activision Blizzard's CEO regarding layoffs and the scandal concerning bullying and sexual harassment.
As Microsoft fought sunsequent regulators rumors surfaced on the web that if the deal in question does not go through, Bobby Kotick will remain CEO of Activision Blizzard. Now that it has finally been finalized, Kotick will step down from that position after completing all the formalities of the acquisition - most likely with a sizable severance package in his pocket. We will probably learn more about his future in the game industry soon.
