The Activision Blizzard CEO didn’t quite manage to win the award (which went to Hasbro's Brian Goldner), but he was chosen as one of the five select finalist CEOs from companies spanning all different businesses and industries, from J.P. Morgan to Southwest Airlines to Heinz.
Praise for Kotick was mainly found in his role behind the successful merger of Activision and Vivendi, to which Marketwatch described as creating “a formidable challenger to industry leader Electronic Arts”.
Michael Pachter, industry analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, said of Kotick: "There's a big mistake some people make in describing current success as a future strategy. What I like about Bobby is that he adapts and recognizes mistakes."