(Newswire.net — April 12, 2022) — Bobby Kotick, the Activision Blizzard CEO, can consider Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, among his biggest fans. “I like Bobby Kotick a lot,” Munger stated during an interview before Daily Journal’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Munger is the chairman of Daily Journal.
“I consider [Bobby Kotick to be] one of the reasonable people in that field,” explained Munger. Kotick has been the head of Activision since laying the foundation while in college at the University of Michigan. In 2008, he led the merger of Activision with Blizzard Entertainment, which was a part of Vivendi at that time. And now again, he is overseeing the video game holding company’s acquisition by Microsoft.
Bobby Kotick on the Accomplishments of Activision Blizzard Employees
Bobby Kotick was born to be the CEO of the gaming corporation. “I will continue as our CEO with the same passion and enthusiasm I had when I began this amazing journey in 1991,” he says. And he’s incredibly proud of the work Activision Blizzard employees have been doing for decades. “When you reflect on what we have built together, we have so much to be proud of. For the last 31 years, we have continuously shaped gaming through our commitment to deliver joy, fun, and the thrill of accomplishment,” says Kotick. “We have transformed games into social experiences and enabled players to find purpose and meaning through the most engaging forms of entertainment — our games.”
Building a Successful Business
Bobby Kotick was instrumental in growing Activision Blizzard into today’s gaming giant. According to the company’s 2020 annual report, its net revenue in 2020 was $8.1 billion, while net income was $2.2 billion.
“We have created and entertained hundreds of millions of players,” he says. “Connecting these communities together is the next step. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Sony, Disney, Apple, Tencent, NetEase — and many more — have ambitions for their own gaming and metaverse initiatives. Likewise, established and emerging competitors see an opportunity for virtual worlds filled with professionally produced content, user-generated content, and rich social connections.”
Bobby Kotick’s Activision Blizzard Owns Multiple Companies
Bobby Kotick’s Activision Blizzard distributes and develops video games, as well as other services, on game consoles, personal computers, and mobile devices. In addition to a number of subsidiaries, it operates across three main branches: Activision, Blizzard, and King. Furthermore, the corporation owns hugely successful esports leagues and brings in substantial revenue from selling digital advertising and in-game content.
Activision acquired video game developer Raven Software in August 1997. Raven is the subsidiary that played an essential role in the development of 2020’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. In 2001, it bought another video game developer, Treyarch Invention, for a reported $20 million. The Treyarch deal was beneficial to the development of skateboarder Tony Hawk’s video game series.
Next, it acquired Infinity Ward. It’s estimated that Bobby Kotick’s Activision Blizzard paid $5 million for the video game developer in 2003. Infinity Ward developed the early games in the Call of Duty franchise. The first-person shooter game, which debuted in October 2003, has made billions of dollars for Activision Blizzard.
Bobby Kotick added video game developer King to the Activision Blizzard stable in 2016. His company bought King Digital, the creators of Candy Crush Saga, for $5.9 billion to establish Activision in the mobile gaming market. When that deal was finalized, Activision Blizzard became the biggest gaming network in the world based on its total user base.
He’s looking forward to what the future has in store for his iconic video game company. “Now it is on to the next chapter, and the endless possibilities [the Microsoft] transaction represents for us. I could not be more appreciative of [the Activision Blizzard employees’] efforts, focus, and the dedication to connecting the world through joy and fun,” he enthuses.