As Activision Blizzard (WoW, Destiny 2, Overwatch) announces, they intend to part ways with their CFO. He received nearly $10 million in compensation in the last financial year. The company does not provide a reason for the dismissal, but the stock price fell 26% in 2018.
Who is it about? It is about 48-year-old Spencer Neumann. He is the CFO, Chief Financial Officer, for the giant gaming publisher Activision Blizzard.
Neumann has been with Activision Blizzard since 2017. Previously, the Harvard graduate worked at Walt Disney and ABC.
In 2017, Neumann received a total of $9.47 million in “compensation.”
As a publicly traded company, Activision Blizzard officially communicates such decisions in leadership, they fill out forms with the stock exchange regulator (via sec.gov).
Why is Activision Blizzard firing its CFO? The publisher does not provide any official reasons. They only officially state that the dismissal is “not related to the company’s financial report or the disclosure of controls and procedures.”
So there is no reason behind it that they need to communicate.
However, there are two major speculations:
- On one hand, Reuters reports that the giant Netflix wants to poach Neumann to become their CFO.
- And on the other hand, Activision Blizzard’s stock price fell by 26% in 2018 – in December 2018 alone, the stock lost 10% of its value after it was revealed that the number of monthly active users had decreased.
What problems does Activision Blizzard have? Recently, negative news about the company’s titles has been increasing:
- Recently, the end of eSports for Heroes of the Storm caused bad vibes.
- Previously, the numbers for Destiny 2 were not very good.
- The presentation of Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon also made negative headlines.
Activision Blizzard has lost monthly active users for three consecutive quarters. Reasons for this could include the aging of the games (WoW) or that Fortnite is choking the hype around titles like Overwatch or Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
What happens next? Neumann will have the opportunity to contest the dismissal. Meanwhile, he will be suspended but will continue to receive his salary.
However, starting Tuesday, Dennis Durkin, the current Chief Corporate Officer, will be responsible for the financial matters of Activision Blizzard. He previously held the job as CFO from 2012 to 2017.
Recently, there are several reports that Activision is becoming more involved with Blizzard. The increased financial pressure could be responsible for that.
