Activision Blizzard shareholders narrowly approved the company's Say-On-Pay proposal, with 54% voting in favor of the executive compensation package. This is nearly the same result as in 2020, when 57% voted in favor of the proposal, but the approval rate is much lower than in earlier years, with 82% voting in favor in 2019, compared to 92% in 2018.

The Say-On-Pay vote allows shareholders to express their opinion on the amount Activision Blizzard pays its top suits. For example, Activision made "significant and sustainable reductions in CEO compensation" by cutting CEO Bobby Kotick's base salary and cash bonus by 50%, making 95% of his total compensation performance-based and tied to other corporate goals.

Investment group CtW was not convinced, describing these changes as "smoke and mirrors" rather than meaningful changes and urging other investors to vote against them; CtW argued that Kotick's overall compensation package would make the apparent pay cuts meaningless.

Activision Blizzard disagreed, and fortunately for the lawsuit, a sufficient number of shareholders also agreed (although it should be added that this was an advisory vote, not a binding one).

So don't worry: Mr. Kotick will not go back to eating rice and beans. The Financial Times estimates that after the vote, the executives will receive a whopping $155 million from these various compensation plans.

The Activision Blizzard board will point to Kotick's defense that Activision's market value has increased from less than $10 million in 2000 to over $70 billion today, with shareholder returns of 8100 percent over the same period, a figure that would surprise even Scrooge.

"Based on outstanding shareholder returns and responsiveness, we are pleased that Activision Blizzard shareholders once again approved our pay proposal and re-elected our board directors with an average of 96 percent of the vote," an Activision Blizzard representative said in an email.

"The additional time requested by shareholders allowed them to thoroughly review Activision Blizzard's strict pay-for-performance practices and the facts regarding the executive compensation changes the board made based on extensive shareholder feedback.

After the vote, CtW executive Michael Varner told GI.biz that the last word on the matter has not yet been spoken. He said, "Activision is expected to make further changes in response to the vote, in which 46% of shareholders expressed dissatisfaction. They will not be able to 'rest on their laurels' with only the changes they have made to Kotick's salary so far. In addition, Activision has had six times in the past eight years when support for its salary proposal has fallen below 70%, and the 2021 vote was the lowest in the company's history for this proposal."