Electronic Arts is without a chief executive officer since John Riccitiello officially resigned the position on March 30. While the publisher searches for a replacement, executive chairman Larry Probst is guiding the company — and EA is paying him a handsome fee for those services.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":708833,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"B"}']In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing (originally reported by GameSpot), EA’s board agreed to compensate Probst with an annualized salary of $1.03 million. That is the amount he would earn if he held the position for an entire year.
The board also left room open to award Probst a one-time bonus for his work once EA finally appoints a new CEO. That search is ongoing with the publisher considering potential successors from within EA as well as externally.
Industry analyst Colin Sebastian told investors in a letter that he believes current EA chief operating officer Peter Moore and president of EA Labels Frank Gibeau are the leading internal candidates.
Probst was EA’s CEO from 1991 to 2007. Since 1994, he has served as chairman of the board at the publisher.
He also currently chairs the U.S. Olympic Committee.