Activision CEO made $64.9m last year

Financial compensation for Activision CEO Bobby Kotick reached a staggering $64.9 million in 2011.

Bloomberg reports this is eight times the $8.33 million he made the year prior, ranking him as the second-highest paid CEO in America.

Activision’s SEC filings show the majority of this increase came in $55.9 million worth of stock awards, with a cash pay of $2.01 million, $2.5 million in bonuses, and other pay of $4.52 million.

The new employment agreement is dated March 2012 but is retroactive from July 2011 and extends to June 2016.

Kotick’s compensation plan was approved by shareholders last year.

Not everyone is happy about the ammount and manner of the CEO’s pay.

“We don’t like any element of this pay package,” said GMI Ratings corporate-governance consultant Nell Minow.

“In the past we have expressed concern about this company and its compensation practices."

Though falling short on Activision’s goal for profit margins, the company pointed out that Kotick steered the company beyond its goals for operating income, diluted earnings per share and free cash flow.

That said, Kotick’s rank as the second-best paid CEO in the country is well beyond the company’s stated goal of having executive pay in the 75th percentile.

“The lack of information provided by the compensation committee is a red flag,” Minow said.

“It’s very difficult to discern how they determined this compensation package from the information that’s been provided.”

Activision posted net income of $1.15 billion – $1.01 a share – with sales at $4.86 billion.

Company stocks have risen by forty percent in the last year.