Activision Blizzard Being Sued By New York City Over Microsoft Deal
thegamer.comA new lawsuit accuses Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick of rushing to sell the company to Microsoft in order to escape legal liability in the wake of last summer’s allegations of sexual misconduct.
The complaint, as shared by Axios, was filed on April 26 by the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, a pension fund for the city’s teachers, firefighters, and police. The city owns substantial quantities of Activision stock and believes that the value of that stock was hurt in no small part due to the allegations.
Related: 5 Things Microsoft Needs To Bring Back After Buying Activision Blizzard
New York is demanding a list of documents and materials related to the Microsoft deal in its complaint, including information on the five possible buyers mentioned in the official description of the sale talks, one of which might have been EA. The city admits in the filing that it has been looking to gain access to Activision’s books in order to sue Kotick and the Activision Blizzard board over the value lost to the company in the wake of multiple sexual misconduct reports.
Last summer, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed suit against Activision Blizzard over an alleged “frat boy workplace culture,” including multiple allegations of gender discrimination, retaliation, and even one instance where an employee committed suicide on a work trip. Activision Blizzard denied the allegations, which were soon followed by a report from The Wall Street Journal accusing CEO Bobby Kotick of not only tolerating the company’s toxic work culture but at times even contributing to it.
Activision Blizzard’s stock value plummeted after multiple months of repeated scandals followed up by a crackdown against employees
Read more on thegamer.com
