Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will see his salary increase by an eye-watering amount this fiscal year, despite the fact that Microsoft has laid off thousands of employees over the past twelve months or so.
According to a regulatory filing by Microsoft, Nadella’s pay will increase to $79.1 million this year, which is a 63% increase on his 2023 pay.
Most of that amount will be awarded in shares, but some of it is also a cash incentive, although Nadella did request a reduction in said cash incentive in order to “reflect his personal accountability for the focus and speed required for the changes that today’s cybersecurity threat landscape showed were necessary”.
News of Nadella’s payrise was accompanied by the release of Microsoft’s 2024 annual fiscal report, which revealed that Xbox revenue is up 50%, “driven by 44 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition“.
The report states that this increase mainly reflects “the change of Activision Blizzard content from third-party to first-party”, so it’s essentially Microsoft incorporating Activision Blizzard’s revenue into its own figures.
Additionally, the figure includes not only sales, but also Game Pass subscriptions, Cloud Gaming, and advertising, as well as other miscellaneous services.
Nadella’s payrise and Microsoft’s relative success this fiscal year come after thousands of layoffs at the company. Back in January, Microsoft let almost 2,000 employees go from its gaming divisions, and those layoffs were followed by hundreds more back in September.
This year also saw Xbox closing down three of its studios: Mighty Doom developer Alpha Dog, Redfall outfit Arkane Austin, and Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks, although the latter was subsequently snapped up by PUBG publisher Krafton, along with the Hi-Fi Rush IP.
Nadella isn’t the only corporate CEO thriving amidst a very uncertain time for the gaming industry. In June, it was revealed that EA CEO Andrew Wilson made over $25 million last year despite that company also suffering hundreds of layoffs.
