The CtW Investment Group, which made headlines last month for saying that Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick, is paid too much, and asking shareholders to vote against giving the publisher complete say in setting his compensation, is now asking the same from EA’s shareholders. In a letter to shareholders, the group called out the bonuses EA paid CFO Blake Jorgensen and CTO Kenneth Moss, despite last year’s layoffs and below-target annual performance. “While shareholders have benefited from appreciation in the company’s stock price over the long term, we believe that these gains do not permit the company to indiscriminately pay its executives,” the letter notes.
The group took issue with EA’s “excessive” equity (shares) granting program, which it says is responsible for earning executives these bonuses “before the performance period for a previous special award has even finished.” The filing says Jorgensen received a $10 million special equity grant on top his $6.5 million annual grant in January 2017, whereas Moss received $7 million on top of his $5.5 million dollar annual award. “Electronic Arts appears to be developing a special award grant addiction. The company has seen fit to grant some executives yet another retention award in fiscal 2020 after already granting them one in fiscal 2018, even when the performance period for the first special award has yet to conclude,” noted CtW. As such, CtW is asking shareholders to also vote against the Say On Pay proposal, which EA will discuss at its next annual meeting in August.
