Activision CEO Kotick gets $7.9 million cash bonus for 2013

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activision Blizzard Inc's chief executive, Robert Kotick, was awarded a cash bonus of $7.9 million for 2013 as part of the videogame publisher's incentive plan, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The board granted him a cash bonus equivalent to 374 percent of his $2.1 million base salary last week, the filing said. Kotick, 50, is one of the top-paid CEOs in the United States. He received total compensation of $64.9 million, including performance-based stock awards that vest over five years on a base salary of $2 million in 2012. Kotick has been a director and CEO of Activision since February 1991, and in July 2008 he became CEO of Activision Blizzard following the merger of Activision with Vivendi Games. Last July, the company known for its blockbuster "Call of Duty" and "Skylanders" games said Kotick would shell out $50 million of his own money in an $8.2 billion deal to buy back most of French conglomerate Vivendi's stake. Kotick, also a board member of Coca-Cola Co, was paid $8.33 million in 2011 by Santa Monica, California-based Activision. (Reporting by Malathi Nayak; editing by Matthew Lewis)