Top Executive Exits Activision

The executive suites at Activision (ATVI) are undergoing another shake-up.

Kathy Vrabeck resigned as president of the company's publishing division earlier this month, the company said Thursday in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Vrabeck will continue as an employee in an unspecified role until April 1, when her contract expires, the company said.

Activision did not explain the reason behind Vrabeck's resignation, which was tendered and immediately effective Sept. 2. A company representative did not return a call seeking comment on her departure.

Vrabeck apparently was passed over for a promotion in June when the company promoted Ron Doornink from CEO to chairman of Activision Publishing. Instead of replacing Doornink with Vrabeck, who had reported directly to him, Activision hired Michael Griffith, a longtime manager at Proctor & Gamble (PG).

Vrabeck's departure follows news in July that the company was easing out Richard Steele, the president of its distribution division, of running that division's daily operations.

Following Vrabeck's resignation, Activision cancelled some of her unvested options, the company said in its filing. However, the company will continue to pay her base salary and benefits and accrue vacation days until her contract ends. The company will also prorate her annual bonus for next year.

She earned a base salary of $500,000 in fiscal 2005 and received a $423,750 bonus, making her the second-highest paid executive at the company in terms of cash compensation. Vrabeck did not receive any stock options last year, but had received some in previous years. Indeed, Vrabeck held more than 1 million options as of March 2005 after exercising 405,005 options last fiscal year, seeing a windfall of about $5.3 million.

Activision did not say how many of Vrabeck's options it would cancel, only that they were unvested shares.