Two months after the completion of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Century acquisition case, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has finally confirmed his resignation date.
On December 21st, Microsoft reported that Kotec officially announced earlier that December 29th, 2023 would be its last day in Microsoft's gaming department. "During my 32 years leading Activision Blizzard, our employees and all those who have helped us have continued to contribute to our success, and I cannot express my pride in them," he said in his resignation statement during Activision Blizzard.
The departure of this controversial and controversial CEO is bound to have an impact on the direction of Activision Blizzard in the coming period. What impact will his departure have on Activision Blizzard, after more than 32 years of service at Activision Blizzard? What kind of Activision Blizzard will Microsoft, the new owner, hope to see after Kodiaq's departure?
During the 32 years of Kodik's tenure
Looking back at Kotik's previous career, it is not difficult to find that he has a standard resume for an executive in a major American internet company.
Kodik was born in 1963 in the United States and spent his childhood in New York. In 1983, while studying art history at the University of Michigan, he co founded a technology company called Arktronics with friends. In his sophomore year, Curtic dropped out of the University of Michigan and devoted all his energy to running his own company.
His intersection with Activision Blizzard began in December 1990. At that time, Curtic and his partner Brian Kelly acquired approximately 25% of Mediagenic's shares - a company that was almost bankrupt at the time. Subsequently, he renamed the company Activision. Three months after the acquisition was completed, Kodiaq officially became the CEO of Activision, carrying out a comprehensive restructuring of the company and focusing on the development of electronic games.
In 2006, Curtic began planning to merge the gaming division of French entertainment group Vivendi with Activision, including Blizzard Entertainment and another developer, Sierra.
In 2008, after the merger was completed, Activision Blizzard, which later became a dominant player in the gaming industry, was officially launched. In the same year, Activision Blizzard's shareholders also officially approved Kodiaq as the company's CEO.
During his tenure, Activision Blizzard successively launched game products such as Diablo III, Hearthstone, Storm Hero, Watchman, and Candy Crush. Activision Blizzard's market value also grew from the initial 150 million to $74.22 billion before delisting. "Under Bobby's leadership, Activision Blizzard has undergone multiple changes, but remains an enduring pillar of the electronic gaming industry. For decades, his team has created a series of games that are loved by users and brought joy to hundreds of millions of players." This was commented in an internal speech by Microsoft's gaming CEO, Phil Spencer.
On the other hand, despite being the undisputed number one figure of Activision Blizzard, there is still mixed praise from the outside world for Kodiaq.
On July 20, 2021, Activision Blizzard was sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) to the Los Angeles High Court for long-standing issues of sexual harassment and gender discrimination within the company. DFEH's accusation against Blizzard states that the number of female employees in Blizzard only accounts for 20% of the total number of employees, and gender discrimination and its related issues are also widespread. For example, the company's top management has always been dominated by white men, and there is a significant difference in the promotion and reward mechanisms between male and female employees.
Among them, Kotec's management style has also become the focus of criticism from internal employees. An employee once told the media that the personnel conflict within Blizzard has a long history, with problems such as poor cultural atmosphere and deliberate lowering of employee salaries. In November of the same year, nearly 1000 Activision Blizzard employees even signed a petition demanding the dismissal of Bobby Kotick.
However, despite the complaints of his subordinates who are about to step down from Kotec at the end of the year, he can still take a considerable amount of compensation from Microsoft. According to relevant documents released by the SEC, if Activision Blizzard or its subsidiaries (including Microsoft) terminate the employment of a designated senior executive without reason, or if the designated senior executive resigns due to "legitimate reasons", they will be required to provide "golden parachute" compensation in accordance with regulations (i.e., in the case of a target company being acquired, senior executives of the company, whether voluntarily or forcibly leaving the company, can receive a huge resettlement compensation fee).
This means that even without calculating Kotick's holdings of millions of shares in Activision Blizzard, he can receive up to $14.592 million (approximately RMB 110 million) in compensation for his resignation alone.
What are Microsoft's expectations for Activision Blizzard
After announcing the departure date of Kodiaq, Microsoft immediately announced a series of organizational changes for Activision Blizzard's executive team.
Among them, Thomas Tippl, Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard, Rob Kostic, President of Activision Distribution, Mike Ybarra, President of Blizzard Entertainment, and Tjodorf Sommestad, President of King, will report directly to Matt Booty, the head of Microsoft's game content and studio. At the same time, the leadership teams of Activision, Blizzard, and King will remain unchanged, and the operational structure of the studio and business departments will not change.
In addition, Lulu Meservey, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and CCO of Activision Blizzard, as well as Humam Sakhnini, Vice Chairmen of Blizzard and King, will also resign at the end of December. Some Activision Blizzard executives will also resign in March next year.
From Microsoft's series of adjustments to the internal architecture of Activision Blizzard, it is evident that the former hopes that the massive investment of $68.7 billion can quickly bring strong support to its gaming business.
Game industry analyst Zhang Shule pointed out in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald that Microsoft's understanding of Activision Blizzard's business is focused on three aspects: first, the stable operation of old games, including the return of core technical personnel from Activision Blizzard, to ensure that Activision Blizzard quickly recovers its combat effectiveness; The second is the development and operation of new games for old IPs, especially in the situation where both the league and new games of "Guardians" have been in poor condition. With only the new game of "Diablo" in the relay status of old IPs, we need to use more and better new games from old IPs to consolidate Microsoft's voice in the gaming world. The third is the promotion of joint research and development, using Activision Blizzard IP for mobile game development, especially collaborating with Chinese game manufacturers to develop Activision Blizzard IP mobile games, learning from the experience of mobile game research and operation, in order to quickly form the influence of Blizzard's game IP in the mobile game market.
Microsoft's first quarter financial report for the 2024 fiscal year, released in October this year, showed a 9% increase in overall gaming revenue, and a 13% increase in Xbox content and service revenue, including XGP. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood also raised the company's growth expectations for the gaming business during the financial report meeting: after acquiring Activision Blizzard, it is expected that Microsoft's overall gaming revenue will increase by about 40% in the second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, and Xbox content and services will increase by 50%.
However, at present, the situation of new products under Activision Blizzard entering Microsoft's first party game library is not optimistic. The two new games, Diablo 4 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, are expected to wait until 2024 to join Game Pass, which also puts some pressure on Microsoft's gaming business to achieve the KPI for the next quarter.
"Blizzard's product matrix is still there, but the team is fragmented and it is difficult to restore combat effectiveness in the short term. However, the existing game super IP matrix can fully create conditions for Microsoft to consolidate its position in console games, explore trial and error in cloud games, expand its territory in mobile games, and establish a 'microsoft+Blizzard' virtual world in the metaverse field. However, currently limited to practical conditions, its adaptation period may take one or two years, and it may take three to five years to truly form combat effectiveness," he said.