Activision Blizzard fires current Chief Financial Officer, Dennis Durkin announced as new CFO
UPDATE: It’s been reported by Reuters that Spencer Neumann, the CFO of Activision Blizzard, has been poached to work as the CFO Netflix. Netflix is expected to announce the news in the next few days.
Activision Blizzard has filed a report with the SEC on New Years Eve stating they want to fire their current Chief Financial Officer over incidents unrelated to the finances or corporate decisions. Activision Blizzard wants to terminate the contract of Spencer Neumann, who has been the Chief Financial Officer of the company since May 2017.
The SEC filing states that “on December 31, 2018, Activision Blizzard, Inc. (the “Company”) notified Spencer Neumann, the Company’s current Chief Financial Officer, that the Company intends to terminate Mr. Neumann’s employment for cause unrelated to the Company’s financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures.”
The filing says it’s unrelated to the company’s finance reporting, but does not elaborate on what’s the reasoning behind this decision. The SEC report also states that Activision Blizzard is allowing Neumann to file a report to counter the firing if he wants, but is on paid leave until that can happen.
The company announced that Dennis Durkin will take over as Chief Financial Officer effective Jan 1, 2019. Durkin has been with the company since 2012 — he was originally the Chief Financial Officer, then became the Chief Corporate Officer of the company. Now he returns to being CFO going forward.
This news comes as Activision Blizzard didn’t have the best year in 2018, with Destiny 2 underperforming, Blizzard’s lower revenue from services, and Black Ops 4’s sales not fully matching the expectations some analysts had.
We’ll update as more information is shared.
SOURCE: Activision
