EA Executives Called Out By Shareholders For "Unjustified" Bonuses
A few weeks ago, CtW Investment Group called out Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick for his outsized compensation and "skewed approach to human capital management." Now the shareholder group is making a run at Electronic Arts and two of its top executives for the enormous payouts they've been receiving that have "gone too far in terms of executive pay."
As with the Activision case, CtW is encouraging shareholders to vote "no" on the "Say-On-Pay" proposal that will be voted on Aug. 6. According to a letter attributed to CtW Executive Director Dieter Waizenegger, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen and CTO Kenneth Moss have received "two overlapping special awards" despite layoffs at the company in 2019. "One would think one multimillion dollar retention award at a time would be enough," the letter stated.
CtW's major beef with the duplicate awards is that "retention bonuses" for key executives -- i.e., paying them a significant sum of money so that they will stay with the company -- shouldn't be duplicated and overlap one another. Jorgensen and Moss received one such award in 2017, which will not be fully vested until May 2021. Despite that, the two received another bonus in 2019.
CtW doesn't mince words when described these redundant bonuses, calling them "unjustified," "an unnecessary 'pile on,'" and has a subhead titled "Payoffs for layoffs." With Jorgensen and Moss already receiving compensation "at the 75th percentile of its peer group," the letter even takes a shot at such bonuses in general, stating that:
"the notion that executives need to be incentivized with pay above-and-beyond the ordinary course program is a complete fallacy in almost all cases."
At the very least, this should make for some interesting questions at the next quarterly EA Investor's Call!
Related Articles
About the Author

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
Read Next
Smilegate Opens Development Studio In Barcelona To Work On "Open World Console Title"
Smilegate, the makers of the incredibly-popular-in-Asia Crossfire first-person shooter and someday-coming-to-the-West-we-hope ARPG Lost Ark, has opened a new development studio in Barcelona, Spain.
By Jason Winter - 2 years agoYou May Enjoy
Microsoft Expects The UK To Oppose Its Activision Blizzard Acquisition
If Microsoft can convince the UK and EU to accept its concessions, things may go in Microsoft’s favor.
By Aspen Pash - 1 day agoTerror Reigns From The Skies In Season 3 Of The Cycle: Frontier
The new Howler monster can fly, and it's terrifying!
By Troy Blackburn - 5 days agoGet A Look At New Strand Exotic Loot Coming In Destiny 2's Lightfall Next Month
Oh what a tangled web of strand we weave...
By Michael Byrne - 1 week agoGo Figure, Someone’s Leaked The Final Phase Of FFXIV's The Omega Protocol Ultimate
The World’s First Race just got a lot faster.
By QuintLyn Bowers - 1 week agoSega Announces Phantasy Star Online 2 NGS Collaboration With NIJISANJI, And There's Plenty Of Places For Screenshots
The Livers come to Central City.
By QuintLyn Bowers - 6 days agoHorizon Multiplayer Alpha Footage Leaks Show Surprising Character Designs
If players were looking for hyper realism, they won’t find it here.
By Aspen Pash - 1 week ago
Discussion (0)