Hey, do y’all remember a little bit back when Activision told Blizzard that it had to start cutting back on its spending? Oh, and that time when it turned out that, in order to cut costs, Blizzard was paying employees to leave its Cork, Ireland office? That’s good, ’cause we do, too, which is why it’s just so gosh-darn strange to hear that Activision recently shelled out an astronomical $15 million US signing bonus to its new CFO, Dennis Durkin — and that’s on top of his nearly-seven-digit $900,000 salary, amounting to $11.3 million of restricted stock and a flat $3.75 million sign-on bonus.
Durkin is replacing the company’s previous CFO, Spencer Neumann, who you might remember was ousted earlier this year. As PCGamesN points out, it’s certainly not at all uncommon in the business world for companies to dish out beaucoup bucks to secure the best employees they can find — especially in high-level positions such as Durkin’s — but it’s still hard not to see the monumental signing bonus as an act of blatant hypocrisy in light of the recent reports regarding Activision’s efforts to force Blizzard to curb its spending. That being said, however, we think everyone can agree that, although the act is certainly galling, it’s by no means surprising.
