Activision and EA bosses appear on 'most overpaid CEOs' list

[midian182]

In brief: While most people would consider CEOs to be overpaid, a non-profit organization has calculated the worst offenders. Among the top 100 are Activision’s Bobby Kotick and EA’s Andrew Wilson, who both earn over 300 times the average salary of an employee from their respective companies.

The annual report, which started in 2015, comes from As You Sow, whose mission statement is to promote environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies.

Each chief executive is ranked based on their salary, the ratio between this and the average worker’s pay, shareholders’ votes against a CEO's compensation package, and total shareholder returns.

Bobby Kotick, head of Activision, has the dubious honor of being the US game industry’s most overpaid CEO. He’s ranked at number 45 on the top 100, thanks to a $28,698,375 salary that’s 306 times more than the average member of staff. 92% of shareholders voted against his pay, and As You Sow believes he gets $12.8 million more than he should.

The report comes not long after Activision said it was laying off 775 people, or 8 percent of its workforce, despite generating record profits last year.

Also on the list is EA CEO Andrew Wilson at number 98. His $35,728,764 wages—371 times more than an average company worker—is said to be almost $20 million too much, and 97% of shareholders voted against it. Electronic Arts is also laying off staff, at its FireMonkeys studio in Australia.

At the top of the list sits Ronald F. Clarke, CEO of Fleetcor Technologies Inc. His $52.6 million salary is 1517 times more than a typical worker at his company. Mark V. Hurd/Safra Catz from Oracle come in at second place, with a $81.5 million pay that’s 907 times higher than most employees' wages.

For comparison, the average ratio between CEO and employee pay in the top 500 US companies is 142:1.

Despite more CEOs receiving obscene salaries, shareholders are fighting back against the trend. “Opposition to high CEO pay has risen, and more companies have seen their CEO pay packages receive less and less support from their shareholders,” writes As You Sow. “European funds and U.S. public pension funds have made their opposition to a broken system clear.”

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https://www.techspot.com/news/78911-activision-ea-bosses-make-most-overpaid-ceos-list.html

 

[psycros]

CEOs only care about stock price because their compensation is tied directly to it. This was one of the worst mistakes the corporate ruling class ever made and permanently crippled the US economy.

 

[ckm88]

Absolutely no surprise here. #crooks

 

[Evernessince]

It's always funny to see some of the worst performing CEOs get some of the biggest paychecks.

A majority of these pay ratios are disgusting. I can't tell whether I'm looking at a modern pay structure or a feudalistic system.

 

[BobHome]

It's always funny to see some of the worst performing CEOs get some of the biggest paychecks.

A majority of these pay ratios are disgusting. I can't tell whether I'm looking at a modern pay structure or a feudalistic system.

Check out # 9, Mattel, Employee pay--Yikes!

 

[amstech]

Good o'l fashioned white collar greed on the administrative level.
It's what America's foundations are built on. Without greed and the immature need for material possession, it would be a boring world.
Maybe one day we will get over that hump and use our resources to broaden our horizons, for now, next stop, buying a new Lambo.

 

[axiomatic13]

Imagine how much better our games would be if just 1% of their salaries were "peanut butter spread" over all employees? Why did we invite the "suits" to the party again?
-ex-game developer

 

[McMurdeR]

Shameless greed

 

[Nocturne]

CEOs only care about stock price because their compensation is tied directly to it. This was one of the worst mistakes the corporate ruling class ever made and permanently crippled the US economy.

The stock market is a scam based on perceptions of a company rather than actual factual basis. It's easy for CEOs to misrepresent their company, just ask Steve Jobs, criminal activities, misadvertising, bad engineering overcharging customers for cheap quality products and denying warranties under technicalities of law. Trillion dollar company, lolz. Murica at its finest.

 

[antiproduct]

Imagine how much the lowest paid (and average) worker salary would rise if some sort of requirement were put in place that said CEOs can't make more than 50x their lowest paid employee.

 

[Nocturne]

Imagine how much better our games would be if just 1% of their salaries were "peanut butter spread" over all employees? Why did we invite the "suits" to the party again?
-ex-game developer

The major problem was when they seen you revenuing more than Hollywood year after year, with less risk, I mean even Bioware/EA can make a game(Anthem cough cough........theoretically) for 8-30 million and even if the game sucks completely and sells 10million copies 600million revenue if sold at full price premium editions would probably cover the overhead now that everything is digital and through origin, I mean most films have 70-120mill pricetags, and it's hit or miss, look at Bree Larson she may have just committed career suicide with her opinionated racist and sexist views, which probably just torched CPT. Marvel at 33%rotten tomatoes ah ad of release, Gamers can be as fickle but for the most part are a bit more forgiving with gaming media as long as they recieve a quality product for a fair price.

It's a shame people work real hard to bring these experiences to gamers, but almost all the problems in the industry would be solved by cutting the heads off the Hydra as it seems the top end makes really stupid decisions at the cost of their fanbase, do you think for 1sec Diablo 4 will be an instant pre-order for all those people that felt burned by Diablo3.

 

[Nocturne]

Good o'l fashioned white collar greed on the administrative level.
It's what America's foundations are built on. Without greed and the immature need for material possession, it would be a boring world.
Maybe one day we will get over that hump and use our resources to broaden our horizons, for now, next stop, buying a new Lambo.

America's foundations were built in regard to men fearing for their mortal soul, they feared gods judgment, and that is why people get away with what they do these days, to them there is no fear or recourse for treating others terribly. Forefather's couldn't see all this coming, the point is we ran away from monarchies and Aristocracies, and over time we ended up recreating them anyways as soon as they let the Capitalist system infect and sway the Democratic portion of government we no longer were a democracy but we ended up evolving into an Oligarchy, an example was how we didn't want a banking system privately owned like the Rothchilds that choked England and the colonies, but we tried it, they abused it and we dosavowed them and restarted, later Woodrow wilson he signed in the bill that created the Federal Reserve, and while signing it he made very clear his regrets. It doesn't matter there is no way around it especially when you have politicians that run with the exact intention of dismantling the federal government to sign it away to privatized Corps. I guess no one learned from Rollerball, Tekken, or any of the other sci-fi mediums that expressed fears of all this happening.

 

[Evernessince]

Imagine how much the lowest paid (and average) worker salary would rise if some sort of requirement were put in place that said CEOs can't make more than 50x their lowest paid employee.

America had that back 1950 - 1963 with a top tax rate of 91%. If you ended up in the top tax bracket you either invested money into your company / employees until your taxable income put you out of that bracket or payed the rate. That rate dropped to 70% during the Kennedy administration. A higher tax rate on the rich encourages the top earners to put their money back into the economy instead of sitting on it. It's really a win-win because the economy sees a boost from investment that otherwise wouldn't have occurred and the rich still reap the benefits of those investments.

Instead what we have now are rich sitting on their cash all the while getting free government money by states begging them to setup shop there. Ironic, Americans have become so desperate that they forget they ultimately hold all the cards.

 

[iamcts]

Imagine how much the lowest paid (and average) worker salary would rise if some sort of requirement were put in place that said CEOs can't make more than 50x their lowest paid employee.

America had that back 1950 - 1963 with a top tax rate of 91%. If you ended up in the top tax bracket you either invested money into your company / employees until your taxable income put you out of that bracket or payed the rate. That rate dropped to 70% during the Kennedy administration. A higher tax rate on the rich encourages the top earners to put their money back into the economy instead of sitting on it. It's really a win-win because the economy sees a boost from investment that otherwise wouldn't have occurred and the rich still reap the benefits of those investments.

Instead what we have now are rich sitting on their cash all the while getting free government money by states begging them to setup shop there. Ironic, Americans have become so desperate that they forget they ultimately hold all the cards.

Careful, you'll upset some people on this website that a 70% marginal tax rate will never apply to.

 

[Bubbajim]

Bobby Kotick, head of Activision, ... ranked at number 45 on the top 100, thanks to a $28,698,375 salary that’s 306 times more than the average member of staff. ... As You Sow believes he gets $12.8 million more than he should.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson at number 98. His $35,728,764 wages—371 times more than an average company worker—is said to be almost $20 million too much

Anyone else struggling with why Kotick is listed ahead of Wilson? Wilson has a higher total salary, worse ratio against his median staff member, and over-paid estimate is much higher. This doesn't make sense to me. What am I missing?

 

[amstech]

America's foundations were built in regard to men fearing for their mortal soul,

Don't forget they were slave owning, self elected land taking pioneers.
Our history books call that type of behavior 'heroes'.
Want a good history lesson, go to an Indian Reservation and talk history, there's one about 30 min from my house.

 

[Evernessince]

Don't forget they were slave owning, self elected land taking pioneers.
Our history books call that type of behavior 'heroes'.
Want a good history lesson, go to an Indian Reservation and talk history, there's one about 30 min from my house.

History is written by the winners.