Published , by Morgan Shaver
Published , by Morgan Shaver
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick once sat on The Coca-Cola Company board of directors but has announced today that he will not stand for re-election in order to devote his full attention to Activision Blizzard.
“I have decided not to stand for re-election to The Coca-Cola Company board in order to focus my full attention on Activision Blizzard at this pivotal time as we prepare for our merger with Microsoft,” Kotick said. “It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve on the Coca-Cola board for the past 10 years.”
While Bobby Kotick is no longer with The Coca-Cola Company, he’s still kicking it at Activision Blizzard, to the dismay of many. Back in January, Microsoft provided a statement to Axios explaining that Bobby Kotick will remain as CEO at Activision Blizzard “as he has for the last 30 years” though that could change once Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is complete. In the aforementioned statement from Microsoft, it’s also noted that, “The Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil [Spencer] after the close.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Bobby Kotick is handled once the Microsoft acquisition is complete, with Microsoft having spent a whopping $68.7 billion for Activision Blizzard, a company mired in controversy with Kotick at the forefront. According to ABetterABK founder Jessica Gonzalez, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard provides Kotick with a “golden parachute” which certainly seems to be the case, at least for now while Kotick remains at Activision Blizzard in the interim.
But hey, at least Kotick isn’t with Coca-Cola anymore, a gig that earned him $340,003 in 2020 alone according to CNBC. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on whether Kotick leaves Activision Blizzard, but in the meantime feel free to let us know how you feel about Kotick as a former Coca-Cola Company board member.