EA CEO, Executives Give Up 2019 Bonuses To Employees
Electronic Arts may be well-known for their love affair with loot boxes, but one can’t deny the sporadic strides the company has made since being twice-dubbed “The Worst Company In America” back in 2013. One of these moments of brilliance was unearthed recently when it was revealed that a number of top EA executives had given up their 2019 bonuses to employees.
According to recent SEC filing dated June 21st, the company’s less-than-favorable (but still extremely hefty) earnings for 2019 has inspired EA to forego their traditional round of bonuses and pay them out to all employees. The pooled amount of about 4.8 million dollars was funded by would-be bonuses from the likes of notoriously-overpaid EA CEO Andrew Wilson as well as CFO Blake Jorgensen CTO Kenneth Moss, CMO Chis Burzzo. Former DICE CEO Patrick Soderlund was also included in the bunch despite notably leaving EA in August of last year. An excerpt from the filing reads:
Given the Company’s 2019 financial performance, and in order to maintain alignment with our pay-for-performance executive compensation philosophy, our CEO and his staff (including the NEOs) requested that they receive no performance cash bonus award for fiscal 2019. The Board (in the case of Mr. Wilson) and the Compensation Committee (in the case of the other NEOs) accepted this request. The bonus funding that would have been allocated to our CEO and his staff (including the NEOs) were contributed to the overall Company bonus pool.”
It would be pretty easy to pick apart this monetary gesture, especially considering some of the shadier choices made by EA in the past. However, a decision such as this is nonetheless encouraging to see, not only for the positive impact on lower-level employees but what it could mean if EA continues to roll with this mindset in the future. Projects like the indie-focused EA Originals program have already shown a willingness by the company to follow a new gamer-focused philosophy.
What do you think? Are you impressed by EA giving up their executive bonuses, or are you having issues with this supposed generosity? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter and Facebook to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day! For more headlines recently featured on DFTG, check out these next few news stories:
Eric Hall2712 Posts
Phone-browsing Wikipedia in one hand and clutching his trusty controller in the other, the legendary Eric Hall spreads his wealth of knowledge as a writer for Don't Feed the Gamers. Be sure to catch his biweekly "Throwback Thursday" segment for a nostalgic look at trivia from the past.
