CEO may have even wanted to leave anyway before the announcement and agreed to make this unpopular announcement knowing that he’d take the bad blood with him when he left.
Comment on Unity CEO John Riccitiello is retiring, effective immediately
lung@lemmy.world 8 months agoThis is actually wrong. There’s a near 100% chance that the decision was made by the board, and also the decision to remove the CEO. So we’re talking about the fall guy, but being an insider, the fall guy will get a tidy sum for the dive
Then the CEO can be recycled to some other project, and a new CEO instated at Unity, so they can pivot or double down with no moral dilemma. In reality, the board was there all along and it’s all a big PR game
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 months ago
rastilin@kbin.social 8 months ago
Maybe, but I'm betting that the CEO who floated the idea that FPS players would be willing to pay per-reload didn't push back too hard against the board's ideas.
merc@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Unity is a public company. Look at their share price:
The company IPO’d 3 years ago at $52 a share, it tanked late last year, and since then has been way below the IPO price. Non-investors only started paying attention in September when they came up with their ludicrous licensing fees. But, for investors what mattered was the way their investment cratered in late 2021 / early 2022.
The investors want returns. This isn’t going to be a matter of finding a good CEO who can treat gamers and the gaming industry right. That kind of CEO isn’t going to get the investors back to $175 a share. The board is going to demand someone who finds a new way to tap new revenue streams, even if it makes people miserable. This one particular gambit failed, but the board isn’t just going to sit back and accept that the IPO price is too high. The chairman of the board is a partner at Sequoia Capital, one of the main pre-IPO investors. My guess is that the VC / Private Equity people didn’t manage to cash out completely before the stock price crashed. So, they’re going to figure out a way to juice the share price so they can sell, even if it means killing the company in the long term.
theneverfox@pawb.social 8 months ago
They obviously recruited him for the role for his great work ruining EA
trolololol@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Except that guy was CEO and board
Benchamoneh@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Most CEOs are shareholders, this is nothing new or unusual
shalafi@lemmy.world 8 months ago
LOL, you’re not playing the game correctly! CEO = bad/evil/stupid, every time, always. They’re all worthless scum that never lift a finger and don’t deserve their job. (Mine’s great and does a fine job of leading the company. We make hella money, but never at the cost of morals, employee pay/benefits or long-term profits. He’s basically an alien. Apparently.)
These kids have never heard of a “board of directors”, nor do they realize the CEO serves at the board’s pleasure. (For those of you working your first job, that means the board can fire the CEO anytime they fuck well please. CEO, in turn, gets a “golden parachute” against such an eventuality. Ya know, in case they get fucked for circumstances beyond their control.)
“Fall guy” or “patsy” is also a new term. Reminds me of reddit’s Ellen Pao. Board wanted unpopular decisions made, put her in the hot seat, she made 'em, fired her ass.
raynethackery@lemmy.world 8 months ago
CEOs have contracts. At least in the USA, not that many people have employment contracts?
SwallowsDick@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah, it’s infuriating how no one talks about the board of directors for any big corporation. And the Ellen Pao shit was wild back in the day. I was there and so many kids and teenagers were throwing internet tantrums because some of the worst subs were being taken down. At least we have Lemmy now, it feels better to me but I guess people can have their hateful communities in the fediverse if they want
ringwraithfish@kbin.social 8 months ago
Ackshually!
lung@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Hey bro I mean no offense but there’s a typo
solomon42069@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Also if we’re talking about avoiding responsibility cause of privilege then the boards of companies are the topic.
The C suite are just managers, usually wealthy from their own career rather than heritage. Board people are almost all old wealth, a parasitic race of nepo babies who ruin everything.
lung@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah man, the hubris it takes to meet only a few times a year, but imagine that you have the elite wisdom needed make all the decisions. You’re the guy on the board, so by definition you must be smarter than the worker bees, huh?