
Get in the KNOW
on LA Startups & Tech
XWith Microsoft Deal, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s Tumultuous Reign Nears a Lucrative End
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him

As the dust continues to settle from Microsoft’s massive $69 billion deal to acquire video game publisher Activision Blizzard, speculation is rife about what the agreement will mean for Bobby Kotick, the controversial chief executive who has led Activision for 30-plus years.
The man who built the Santa Monica firm into one of the gaming industry’s giants is very well-paid, but these days not nearly as well-thought-of. His botched handling of sexual harassment and assault complaints by Activision workers placed the company at the center of a firestorm last year, spurring lawsuits and investigations and prompting investors, employees and even gamers to call for his resignation.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.
Photo: Jordan Matter/Flickr
But all that has now taken a backseat to the Microsoft deal, which would be the largest acquisition in the history of the video game industry and, at a price of $95 per share, prove an enormous windfall for Activision shareholders (including Kotick himself, who holds nearly 4 million shares in the company). And while Kotick helped engineer the transaction—with the furor around Activision reportedly setting a merger into motion last fall—there have been conflicting signals and reports about whether he himself will have a future with the combined companies.
In the span of several months, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer went from telling Xbox staff that he was “disturbed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions” at Activision, to being described as having “a great relationship” with Kotick by none other than the Activision CEO himself. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also spoke highly of Kotick on a conference call Tuesday, praising “his leadership and commitment to real culture change.”
Still, both the Wall Street Journal and Axios reported that Kotick is expected to step down as Activision CEO once the transaction closes—with Kotick said to be drawn to the idea of a “graceful exit.” If Kotick leaves, he will likely do so with an extremely lucrative payout of up to $293 million, per terms described in Activision’s most recent annual report.
But at this point, neither Microsoft nor Activision have revealed what the future will hold for Kotick.
Should He Stay or Should He Go?
Much could depend on what the combined entities will look like. If Microsoft decides to allow Activision to continue operating as a standalone subsidiary following the merger, it’s possible that Kotick could stay put and continue running the business while reporting to Spencer.
A more integrated relationship between the two companies—with Activision folded into Xbox Game Studios—would increase the likelihood that Kotick’s time is up. That is exactly what many workers at the “Call of Duty” publisher have clamored for; nearly 2,000 Activision employees have signed a petition demanding Kotick be removed as CEO in the wake of the controversies under his watch.
While Kotick has thus far survived those controversies, other high-ranking executives have not. Last summer, Activision president J. Allen Brack stepped down days after the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued the company for running a “frat boy” workplace culture where women employees were subject to sexual harassment and retaliated against for complaining.
It all culminated in a bombshell Wall Street Journal report in November, which revealed that Kotick himself had known of such allegations for years, yet had ignored and failed to report them to Activision’s board of directors.
Activision workers’ alliance ABetterABK said on Twitter this week that the Microsoft acquisition was “surprising, but does not change the goals” of the group, which include removing Kotick as CEO and improving conditions for women employees at Activision. “We remain committed to fighting for workplace improvements and the rights of our employees regardless of who is financially in control of the company,” it said.
Kotick’s Big Payday
In 2020, Kotick was one of the highest-paid CEOs of any publicly traded company in the U.S., with a total compensation package worth nearly $155 million. And though the scandals at Activision saw Kotick attempt to save face by drastically reducing his salary, the “graceful exit” that he is said to desire would almost certainly include a hefty payday.
Per Activision’s public disclosures, Kotick would be due as much as $293 million in compensation in the event that he is terminated following a change in the company’s ownership. That sum includes up to $4.4 million in severance pay, $17.4 million in severance bonuses and $271 million in equity awards.
He would also likely be paid out for the roughly 3.9 million Activision shares he owns, which would net him more than $370 million given Microsoft’s $95-per-share acquisition offer.
Some investors are already taking exception to such a sizable payout for Kotick—particularly given the revelations about his role in fostering a toxic, misogynistic culture at Activision, and the subsequent damage to the company’s reputation.
“Now that I think it's highly likely that he will retire once the deal is through, what are the accountability mechanisms for his years of leadership of the company?” Dieter Waizenegger, executive director of activist shareholder group SOC, told Axios this week. The shareholder group has called for any “golden parachute” payment to Kotick to be linked to a “civil rights audit” of his leadership at Activision.
SOC, however, owns less than 1% of Activision Blizzard. And in arranging a deal that will reward Activision shareholders handsomely, it appears that Kotick is set to depart the company on his own terms as a very wealthy man—regardless of the damaging, undignified nature of the latter years of his reign.
- Activision Blizzard Employees Plan Another Walkout, Demand CEO ... ›
- Read Activision Blizzard Employees' Letter to CEO Kotick - dot.LA ›
- Activision Shareholders Call on CEO Bobby Kotick to Resign - dot.LA ›
- Antitrust Regulators Review the Activision-Microsoft Merger - dot.LA ›
- Antitrust Regulators Review the Activision-Microsoft Merger - dot.LA ›
- Activision Blizzard Workers’ Fight for COVID Protections - dot.LA ›
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.
Riot Games Doubles Down on Mobile With ‘Aim Lab’ Investment
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
Riot Games has invested in virtual shooting range developer Statespace, accelerating the Los Angeles video game publisher’s efforts to dominate the mobile gaming space.
Riot did not disclose terms of the investment but told dot.LA it took a “minority stake” in New York-based Statespace.
Statespace’s main product is a platform called Aim Lab, a free-to-play virtual shooting range that first-person shooter gamers can use to warm up their skills before heading into a competitive match. Statespace CEO Wayne Mackey told the Washington Post that the plan is to leverage its relationship with Riot to bring Aim Lab onto mobile platforms—a transition that he said is “imminent” and could happen as soon as next month.
Riot, in turn, wants to integrate Aim Lab as part of its growing base of titles with hardcore fan bases, like its first-person shooter game “Valorant” or its multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game “League of Legends: Wild Rift.” The idea is that esports players could use Aim Lab to warm up with weapons used in the actual games, and also for a postmortem on a match that they lost by giving them a chance to review footage of their defeat and figure out how to improve, Mackey said.
“We look forward to collaborating with Statespace on developing innovative training and coaching tools for Valorant and MOBA players around the world to improve their skills at every level,” Jake Perlman-Garr, Riot’s global head of corporate development, said in a statement Thursday.
Riot has been doubling down on mobile gaming in recent years. The publisher has released three mobile games in the last two years—including “Wild Rift,” its most popular mobile title—and has invested in mobile gaming companies like Double Loop Games and Bunch. That focus has come as mobile gaming has emerged as one of the industry’s fastest-growing sectors.
- Why Riot Games Is Suing Rival Chinese Game Developer Moonton ... ›
- Riot Games Acquires Gaming Studio Hypixel - dot.LA ›
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
Meet Surf Air Mobility, the Startup Trying To Electrify Air Travel
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
The airline industry is a notoriously terrible polluter, with large carriers struggling to find ways to limit the more than 915 million tons of carbon emissions produced by their industry each year.
Yet some startups, like Hawthorne-based Surf Air Mobility, are looking to the electrification of air travel as a possible solution. On Wednesday, Surf Air announced it will go public by merging with blank-check company Tuscan Holdings Corp and Florida-based commuter airline Southern Airways, in a deal that values the combined company at $1.42 billion. The transaction is expected to raise up to $467 million, giving Surf Air much-needed capital to expand its vision for a fully electric airline.
Co-founded by CEO Sudhin Shahani and Chief Brand Officer Liam Fayed in 2012, Surf Air is a charter flight service with an electrified twist. Its single-engine, eight-seater Pilatus PC-12 aircraft is capable of a 2,150-mile flight range and a max speed of 330 miles. While that’s not as long nor as fast as most major commercial airplanes, it suits the carrier’s regional flights between local airports across the country, which are available to members who pay a starting rate of $199 per month.
Surf Air has stacked a notable slate of investors and advisors in recent years. Chairman Carl Albert is an airline industry veteran; he was CEO of turboprop charter airline Wings West before it was acquired by American Airlines and also ran manufacturing outfit Fairchild Aircraft for a decade. Other notable investors include billionaire businessman and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, banking heir Alexandre de Rothschild and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, as well as local venture firms M13, Plus Capital and TenOneTen Ventures.
Though Surf Air has been eyeing an IPO since 2020, Shahani told Bloomberg that the startup’s business really took off during the pandemic, when many travelers who could afford charter flights were eager to skip larger, more crowded planes and airports. The newly merged company expects to generate roughly $100 million in revenue across all of its business units in 2022, it said Wednesday. “We’ve grown 50% last year to this year,” Shahani told Bloomberg.
The company aims to electrify all of its regional flights through the development of both an original hybrid and electric powertrain, which it can use to retrofit turboprop aircraft like its fleet of Cessna Grand Caravans and create fully electric planes. It also hopes to expand to more terminals—something that will be aided by the merger with Southern Airways, which serviced 39 cities and 300,000 customers last year.
Surf Air says that if it achieves that vision, it’ll be able to completely neutralize its emissions while reducing operating costs by half. Right now, Surf Air says its hybrid planes in action are producing half the emissions of a standard flight while saving about a quarter of the cost. The company doesn’t have a deadline on when its fully electric powertrain will be ready, but announced a deal Thursday with aircraft developer AeroTEC and propulsion firm Magnix to make more hybrid electric powertrains for its Cessnas, which could speed up the timeline.
Surf Air’s competitors in the realm of flight electrification include Textron, Cape Air and NASA, which started testing electric planes two years ago. Another airline, Hawaiian Air, is invested in a company that makes electric sea gliders, while Boeing is also testing electric planes. According to a recent report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there are 170 similar projects underway.
“We believe deploying hybrid electric propulsion technology on existing aircraft at scale will be the most significant step we can take toward decarbonization of aviation in this decade,” Shahani said in a statement Wednesday. “We’re at a moment when the increasing consumer demand for faster, affordable, and cleaner regional travel will be met with [Surf Air]’s electrification ecosystem to accelerate the industry’s adoption of green flying.”
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Samson is also a proud member of the Transgender Journalists Association. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter at @Samsonamore. Pronouns: he/him
Ranavat’s Founder on How Pregnancy and Ayurveda Inspired Her to Start Her Skincare Company
Yasmin is the host of the "Behind Her Empire" podcast, focused on highlighting self-made women leaders and entrepreneurs and how they tackle their career, money, family and life.
Each episode covers their unique hero's journey and what it really takes to build an empire with key lessons learned along the way. The goal of the series is to empower you to see what's possible & inspire you to create financial freedom in your own life.
On this episode of Behind Her Empire, Michelle Ranavat talks about how pregnancy and traditional ayurvedic remedies inspired her to start her skincare company, and how she grew it without relying on outside funding.
Ranavat started her company at 35, after giving birth to two kids. Her maternity leave allowed her to step back from the day-to-day worries of life at work. She found herself diving into Ayurvedic postpartum rituals. Around the same time, she noticed some of her hair started falling out and was paying attention to the ways her skin was changing. That inspired her to do something about it.
“I think I was in the frame of mind that I was discovering and thinking about, ‘Oh, that's kind of an interesting idea’, or ‘Why isn't there a product?’ and I had the time, in many ways, and the clarity because I wasn't in a day to day job,” she said.
Ranavat began working on a product, and used her last name for her fledgling company. Its first big launch brought positive feedback from prospective customers, but she didn't want to stop there. Instead, she said, she looked closely at what people said could make the product better.
“I think the product was good. I think that I just got better at formulating [it],” she said. “And so I didn't feel bad about letting go. Because I knew I was working towards something better.”
Ranavat was one of the first companies to bring Ayurvedic practices to skincare, focusing first on a variety of hydrating masks and mists.
“Early on, I didn't have amazing packaging [or] a great brand story, but I think the brand story and the concept and the area in which we were trying to educate and push in the whitespace that existed was massive,” said Ranavat.
Out of the gate, Ranavat got interest from Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Credo Beauty, among other big retailers. At the time, the brand didn’t have much of a social media following or a cadre or influencers to boost it. But its unique story got it some early press, and that helped it build a following – even from some in the South Asian community who may not be accustomed to paying for a product they’re used to making themselves, Ranavat said.
“I think it's a hard sell, honestly, to a South Asian community. Because they're like, ‘Oh, I make it at home’, or ‘I don't really typically spend this much on my beauty’,” she said. “But we actually had an amazing response. And a lot of the responses were like, ‘Man, I don't usually spend this much. But let me tell you, this works‘.”
Ranavat said the rise of her company didn’t happen without some mistakes along the way. But she reminds herself that feeling is only finite and that nothing needs to be perfect.
“I don't think anyone really is making a mistake unless they are feeling like they're stuck in their ways and they can't evolve,” she said.
Hear more of the Behind Her Empire podcast. Subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radioor wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Audience Engagement Fellow Joshua Letona contributed to this post.
Yasmin is the host of the "Behind Her Empire" podcast, focused on highlighting self-made women leaders and entrepreneurs and how they tackle their career, money, family and life.
Each episode covers their unique hero's journey and what it really takes to build an empire with key lessons learned along the way. The goal of the series is to empower you to see what's possible & inspire you to create financial freedom in your own life.