NCSoft, which launched a co-CEO system for the first time since its founding, is strengthening its capabilities to leap forward as a global game company. The company plans to improve its overall structure through management efficiency and mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
On the 28th, NCSoft held its regular shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where the agenda to reappoint CEO Kim Taek-jin as an inside director and to newly appoint Park Byung-moo as co-CEO and inside director was approved. In addition, all seven proposals, including ▲approval of financial statements and consolidated financial statements ▲partial amendment of the articles of incorporation ▲appointment of outside directors as audit committee members ▲approval of director remuneration limits, were passed as originally proposed.
Key NCSoft executives, including newly appointed CEO Park, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Koo Hyun-beom, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Hong Won-joon, attended the shareholders' meeting. CEO Kim was absent due to an overseas business trip.
In his greeting, newly appointed CEO Park said, "Last year’s results were disappointing compared to 2022, which was the best performance since our founding," adding, "The global game market is very unstable, and NCSoft is also facing internal and external difficulties. The stock price has fallen significantly, and I sincerely apologize to our shareholders."
He continued, "Despite over 20 years of numerous hardships, we are the only company in Korea that owns multiple hit IPs developed in-house, and we have excellent talent and assets," stating, "We have accumulated know-how from both successes and failures, and I believe that by utilizing this, we can sufficiently pursue sustainable growth again, and the stock price will rise."
He also expressed confidence, saying, "A large number of new genre games aimed at the global market are scheduled to be released this year," and "This year will be the first year of NCSoft’s global expansion."
Despite CEO Park’s confidence, shareholders voiced criticism over NCSoft’s continued decline in performance and management instability. In particular, Wi Jeong-hyun, president of the Korea Game Society, pointed out the management deficit of NC West Holdings, the North American business corporation overseen by CEO Yoon Song-i, wife of CEO Kim.
In response, CEO Park said, "We integrated several studios under NC West into the competitive ArenaNet. It is the place that created the very meaningful intellectual property (IP) Guild Wars, and we are currently developing 'Guild Wars 3.'"
He emphasized, "Please recognize that CEO Yoon Song-i’s contribution to the company goes beyond being the CEO’s family member, including her expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and her network in the United States."
There was also criticism that founder CEO Kim’s salary was excessive. Last year, CEO Kim received a total compensation of 7.246 billion KRW, including a salary of 2.559 billion KRW and bonuses of 4.665 billion KRW, ranking first among game industry executives.
In response, COO Koo said, "The compensation for the first half of the year will be disclosed in August, but the performance-based compensation for CEO Kim for 2023, set by the compensation committee in March this year, has already been determined as zero," adding, "CEO Kim has accepted this without any objections."
He added, "NCSoft’s structure does not allow the CEO to decide his own compensation. It is independently and reasonably determined through the board of directors and the compensation committee," and "Rather than monthly salary-type compensation, long-term incentives linked to performance are mainly structured, which are directly connected to the company’s performance."
Meanwhile, newly appointed CEO Park expressed his intention to improve management efficiency of the baseball team ‘NC Dinos’ this year. He said, "Last year, we paid 25.8 billion KRW to our subsidiary NC Dinos, and we plan to provide a loan of 37.3 billion KRW by December this year," adding, "However, we plan to significantly reduce management support this year."
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