*Updated: This article was changed to remove inaccuracies from the original Bloomberg report. An Activision spokesperson shared the following statement: “Our goal has always been to ensure we compensate our employees fairly and competitively. We are constantly reviewing compensation philosophies to better recognize the talent of our highest performers and keep us competitive in the industry, all with the aim of rewarding and investing more in top employees.”
Things are looking good for Activision these days. Although Black Ops Cold War didn’t sell as well as the company might’ve liked, that’s fine because Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are basically printing money through microtransactions, not to mention Call of Duty: Mobile and its 300 million downloads.
That much success is hard to go unnoticed, especially on Wall Street. As reported by The Wall Street Journal's Sarah Needleman, Activision Blizzard's stock price hit a 37-year high today of $95.08 earlier this morning. As of the time of this writing, that price has climbed to $95.34, a rise of 2.38% since yesterday and a jump of over 50% from the same time last year.
Research firm MKM Partners increased their forecast for 2021 expecting that same performance to continue as the pandemic and next-gen consoles drive demand for games, raising their stock price target to $105.
Meanwhile, Activision plans to hire 2,000 more workers this year after only just recently slashing 800 jobs in 2019. Not to mention CEO Bobby Kotick remains the highest-paid CEO in gaming--a fact that some shareholders are starting to notice.
Still, with a skyrocketing stock price, it’s unlikely that those shareholders will take any action to disrupt what is clearly a money-making machine.
Source: Twitter/Wall Street Journal