EA paid executives $60 million in the same fiscal year it laid off 670 people

midian182 · Wednesday at 7:55 AM

A hot potato: Electronic Arts, a company that laid off 670 people earlier this year because the $7.56 billion net revenue it earned in the 2024 fiscal period wasn't enough, paid its top execs $60 million during the same timeframe. CEO Andrew Wilson took the majority share: $25.6 million.

EA's annual Proxy Statement, highlighted by Game Developer, shows that Wilson's basic salary in FY24 was $1.3 million. He also received over $20m in stock awards, slightly under $3.5m from a non-equity incentive plan, and $500,000 in "other" compensation, such as personal security benefits. His compensation was significantly higher in FY24 than in 2023 ($20.6 million) and 2022 ($19.8 million).

Wilson was praised for overseeing a "year of continued employee satisfaction scores above industry benchmarks," which included "record high talent retention."

To the 670 people, or 5% of its total workforce, laid off by EA a few months ago, those statements will doubtlessly sound bitter. Wilson said the cuts were part of an ongoing effort to "optimize our global real estate footprint to best support our business."

The company also laid off 775 people, or 6% of its workforce, in March 2023. It implemented further layoffs at Codemasters, which EA owns, in December.

Other EA executives who received massive pay packets include Laura Miele, president of EA Entertainment, technology and central development. Miele received the second-highest pay, a total of over $12 million, consisting of a base salary of $820,385, stock awards worth $10.05 million, and non-equity incentive plan compensation of $1.2 million.

Elsewhere, CFO Stuart Canfield walked away with $6.4 million, and Chief People Officer Mala Singh earned $6.9 million.

It's noted that the median employee earned $148,704 in compensation. That means Wilson earned 172 times more than the average worker at the company.

Top executives earning salaries hundreds of times greater than those of regular workers isn't something new, but it's even more galling when it comes after a company fires workers because it wants to streamline. The fact Wilson's pay increased by $5 million in a year is another slap in the face for those who were fired.

An estimated 10,800 people from within the games industry have been laid off in 2024 so far, more than the 10,500 that lost their jobs across the whole of 2023.

Permalink to story:

EA paid executives $60 million in the same fiscal year it laid off 670 people

Endymio · Wednesday at 8:19 AM

Top executives earning salaries hundreds of times greater than those of regular workers isn't something new, but it's even more galling when it comes after a company fires workers

It's only galling to emotion-fueled, poorly-educated neo-socialists. Companies typically don't fire workers who are earning them money -- and a worker who isn't doing that is not only hurting the firm, but the economy as a whole.

As for CEO Wilson's $5M salary increase, in the last 2 years, he's increased EA's gross profits by more than $700M, despite revenues being slightly down in that period. How much did those 670 fired workers cost the company?

NicktheWVAHick · Wednesday at 2:20 PM

Too bad we don’t have CEOs running the federal government.

Jyrkz · Wednesday at 4:24 PM

Real CEOs wouldnt have this laying off problems. History has thought us that EA has mostly survived on people who dont know about real quality games... they only care about money. There are only very few gameing companys that really care about their games.. and to them I take my hat off. Cheers! Fcuk EA and all the greedy woke basterds

scavengerspc · Wednesday at 10:03 PM

Jyrkz said:
Real CEOs wouldnt have this laying off problems. History has thought us that EA has mostly survived on people who dont know about real quality games... they only care about money. There are only very few gameing companys that really care about their games.. and to them I take my hat off. Cheers! Fcuk EA and all the greedy woke basterds

"𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆.
𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗹𝘂𝗿
𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱"

stewi0001 · 2024-06-20T08:09:23-0400

Companies like EA are only concerned about making money to make their stock holders happy. Sadly a lot of big companies are like this.

JupitersMoon · 2024-06-20T10:13:48-0400

Endymio said:
"It's only galling to emotion-fueled, poorly-educated neo-socialists. Companies typically don't fire workers who are earning them money -- and a worker who isn't doing that is not only hurting the firm, but the economy as a whole.

As for CEO Wilson's $5M salary increase, in the last 2 years, he's increased EA's gross profits by more than $700M, despite revenues being slightly down in that period. How much did those 670 fired workers cost the company."

That's your assumption and quite frankly a ridiculous take. You assume those fired workers were not bringing any value to the company. Regardless, it's a bad look for a company to have so many layoffs and the CEO gets a pay raise. So forget the fact that they have a family and mouths to feed to be let go in this economy right? The CEO makes 10x more than the average employee at EA who's median salary is $143,000. 10 TIMES more.

Not to mention if he really did raise their by revenue to $700 million dollars (7.56 Billion net worth) why are they having layoffs to begin with? That tells me that they have more than enough revenue to not only keep those employees but also give them a pay raise as well. The CEO is not the only person putting in the work to bring in that revenue.

Endymio · 2024-06-20T10:45:22-0400

stewi0001 said:
Companies like EA are only concerned about making money to make their stock holders happy. Sadly a lot of big companies are like this.

ALL companies are not only "concerned" about making money for their stockholders, they're legally required to have that concern, and place it above all others. If you think this is a poor system, I suggest you check out the booming consumer utopias of Cuba, North Korea, or a former Soviet Republic.

Jyrkz said:
Real CEOs wouldnt have this laying off problems.

If you owned a videogame company rather than simply used their products, you'd define a "real" CEO by one who improved the bottom line -- as did EA's CEO Andrew Wilson.

JupitersMoon said:
That's your assumption and quite frankly a ridiculous take. You assume those fired workers were not bringing any value to the company.

If they were making the firm money, they wouldn't have been laid off. Even more to the point, their firing led to higher profits and higher margins for the firm. Q.E.D.

JupitersMoon said:
Regardless, it's a bad look for a company to have so many layoffs and the CEO gets a pay raise.

Again: it's only a 'bad look' for those ignorant of the most basic of business and economic principles. Intelligent companies pay employees by what they're worth. A worker losing the company money gets laid off, while a CEO who vastly improves profits gets a raise.

JupitersMoon · 2024-06-20T12:15:58-0400

I've encountered people like you before: Condescending, arrogant, know-it-all, and lack empathy.

That said, you are still missing the point. I feel like your way of thinking is part of the problem that enables opportunistic practices in the workforce all for the sake of profits. That's all these companies care about is profits, profits, record profits. Well, who is actually benefiting from these profits? The CEO is already making MILLIONS of dollars; without stocks. Over 700 employees got laid off, but all of the executives including the CEO saw hefty bonuses after those employees got fired? So that shareholders get a better stock price? so they can continue funding that Yacht, those 6 exotic cars? It's disgusting.

We are talking about people with families being laid off during dire economic times, stagflation, and record high interest rates. Those employees that were laid off, were any of them executives?....I'll wait.....NO. In fact, I rarely hear about executives being laid off. It's always the ones who actually build the product and put in the work that have to pay the price.

The CEO alone makes more annually than ANY of those employees will ever make in their lifetime (80 years) on his base salary alone. You can miss me with this one. It's ALWAYS about profit and the ones who benefit from the profit sit at the top and the ones who never receive are the ones at the bottom.

So yes, you are right. I am "Woke" meaning I am no longer asleep to the bs system put in place to keep working people poor.

JupitersMoon · 2024-06-20T12:18:17-0400

scavengerspc said:
"𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆.
𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗹𝘂𝗿
𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱"

This.

Endymio · 2024-06-20T13:09:32-0400

JupitersMoon said:
I've encountered people like you before: Condescending, arrogant....

It's anger and outrage from me, not condescension. These same muddle-headed neo-socialist rationalizations are responsible for more human misery and death in the last century than all the wars of that same period. And yet no matter how many times we try to explain the basics of economics and human ethics to you people, you refuse to learn.

All you see is a videogame maker, creating your toys. But expand your view. Corporations turn resources into goods and services. When they lose money, they're consuming more than they generate. Resources are being destroyed. When all the nation's corporations -- food, energy, housing, medicine, etc -- do that, there's nothing left over for the people. Oh, and without profits, there are no taxes on profits, which makes funding the government difficult as well.

This analysis works for individual workers too. If an independent carpenter isn't turning a profit, he's consuming more in wood, tools, and other resources than he's creating. If most of a nation does that, you have a Soviet-style dystopia, where workers drudge in government-guaranteed assembly-line jobs, producing products no one wishes to buy, while the store shelves are bare of essential goods, and something as basic as a bar of soap is a black-market luxury item.

You claim to "care" about the common man, yet advocate a system that kept billions in poverty, everywhere from Communist China to the USSR to modern states like North Korea and Cuba. So yes, I'm outraged. With good reason.

JupitersMoon said:
The CEO alone makes more annually than ANY of those employees will ever make in their lifetime

So? Even ignoring all other considerations, the CEO is being paid with money belonging to EA. Not you. This is how the ethics of "property rights" works. They're allowed to spend their money how they choose.

JupitersMoon · 2024-06-20T14:30:41-0400

In my opinion, your anger is unjustified considering your bringing up a political philosophy dated back in the 1930's. It's really not that deep bro. However, you calling people (poorly educated Neo-socialist) because they have an opposing view point regarding unregulated capitalism and greed is the very definition of prejudice. That my internet stranger is not a likeable trait regardless of how smart you think you are.

You cannot hide the fact you are prejudice behind all of your intellectual/philosophical talk.That may have went over a lot of people heads, but not mine. The SIMPLE point of the matter is people like YOU endorsing unregulated capitalism that supports a CEO making 164 times the median salary of his average employee, fire them, and profit another 164 times off their hard work. Absolutely disgusting.

Again you make assumptions that I am looking at this as just a video game enthusiast. This is plan and simple unregulated capitalism and EA is one of the many corporations that have the same greedy cycle, all to turn a profit and satisfy those at the top. This article is literal proof. But oh I forgot, "poorly educated" people only see JUST video games, they are to stupid to see that corporations exploit human capital as a temporary means to sustain profit for their own self-interest and then dispose of them like trash on a Saturday morning.

subnex · 2024-06-20T15:13:43-0400

Laying of staff often increases share pricesand dividents in the short term due to a reduction in costs. It will also show a short term increase in productivity of the company since the financial gains of work nornally is delayed in time.
Ao sacking staff leads to better stats for a company, which in turn tends to trigger bonuses for the executive staff.
Whether these redundancies benefit the conpany in the long term really depends on whether they were solely to polish the stats or whether they trimmed excess fat....

Acquisitions and mergers are another prime example of temporary stat boosting triggering large exec bonuses.....

toooooot · 2024-06-20T16:46:19-0400

Their sport games and specifically cards lottery are endless money source.
Why not squeeze a bit extra from removing a few underperforming people or even divisions.

EA paid executives $60 million in the same fiscal year it laid off 670 people

midian182

Posts: 9,894 +125

A hot potato: Electronic Arts, a company that laid off 670 people earlier this year because the $7.56 billion net revenue it earned in the 2024 fiscal period wasn't enough, paid its top execs $60 million during the same timeframe. CEO Andrew Wilson took the majority share: $25.6 million.

Endymio

Posts: 2,932 +2,908

NicktheWVAHick

Posts: 498 +932

Jyrkz

Posts: 160 +117

scavengerspc

Posts: 3,491 +3,767

stewi0001

Posts: 2,901 +2,733

JupitersMoon

Posts: 11 +20

Endymio

Posts: 2,932 +2,908

JupitersMoon

Posts: 11 +20

JupitersMoon

Posts: 11 +20

Endymio

Posts: 2,932 +2,908

JupitersMoon

Posts: 11 +20

subnex

Posts: 16 +12

toooooot

Posts: 2,982 +1,702

Similar threads

Latest posts