Electronic Arts Investors Reject Pay Plan, Activists Say

(Bloomberg) -- An Electronic Arts Inc. activist group said shareholders rejected the video-game company’s executive compensation plans in the wake of opposition from a number of investor groups.

Shareholders including Trillium Asset Management, Calvert Investments, New York City Funds, CalSTRS and Calpers, and the SOC Investment Group opposed the executive-compensation proposal, SOC said in a press release.

SOC, which works with pension funds sponsored by unions, argued that the game company should extend a moratorium on special equity awards and curtail so-called one-time special equity rewards.

The vote marks the second year EA’s pay plan has been voted down. While the action is advisory and nonbinding, the company changed the way it doles out compensation in several ways following the 2020 vote -- for example, granting no special equity awards in fiscal 2021.

“We’re in regular conservations with our stockholders on a wide variety of issues, and we value the feedback that we receive,” EA said in an email. “Given that their voting is focused on past practices, we didn’t achieve the results we would have liked.”

Other game makers have struggled with say-on-pay recently as well, with rival Activision Blizzard Inc. delaying the vote earlier this summer before its plan was ultimately passed.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.