In a world of chief executive officers earning bonuses when targets aren’t met it’s rather interesting to see a CEOr fall on their own sword rather than dispatching employees.
Case in point – Yves Guillemot, CEO at Ubisoft – who is reportedly taking a voluntary pay cut after Ubisoft failed to reach its financial targets.
As reported by Kotaku, Guillemot’s cut will amount to €310 607 and this will come from his annual variable compensation. This compensation fluctuates according to various factors such as sales.
At the end of the day, Guillemot will “only” receive €624 824 from his annual variable compensation. We’d love to say ouch but €624 824 for failing to meet expectations is more money than we’ll ever see at one time, let alone for failing to meet target.
“This is a personal decision by Yves Guillemot, which he took considering that the company had not reached the financial targets that it had publicly communicated to the markets,” an Ubisoft spokesperson said of the matter.
One of the factors which influences Guillemot’s annual variable compensation is how well the firm is executing reforms internally. The developer was marred by misconduct scandals in 2020.
Worse still, as Axios reports, Ubisoft’s operating profit fell 14 percent, sales are down and it’s stock price has lost half of its value.
The firm is really not in a good place right now and we wouldn’t be surprised if in the next 6 – 12 months, Microsoft or Sony puts an offer on the table to acquire the firm.
