Investors group urges shareholders to vote out Activision Blizzard directors

pcgamer.com:

SOC Investment Group, the activist shareholder organization dedicated to «organizing workers' capital into an effective voice for corporate accountability» that has previously criticized how much CEO Bobby Kotick is paid(opens in new tab) (and, more recently, demanded his removal(opens in new tab)), is urging company shareholders to vote against the re-election of six of the company's ten board of directors. 

Kotick, along with Brian Kelly, Robert Morgado, Robert Corti, Barry Meyer, and Peter Nolan, all failed to recognize «that Activision Blizzard for years maintained unsafe workplaces,» the organization said in a letter to shareholders(opens in new tab), or failed to address those issues once they were brought to light by the 2021 lawsuit(opens in new tab) filed by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

The first order of business in the upcoming annual shareholders meeting(opens in new tab) is the election of company directors, ten in total. It's very routine, and generally goes as the current board wants—and in this case, the board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the election of each nominated director. And that's super-easy: «Unless shareholders instruct otherwise, proxies solicited by this proxy statement will be voted for the election of the ten nominees,» the proposal states, which essentially means that if you're a minority shareholder and don't explicitly vote against the nominees, your vote will be counted in favor.

It requires a little extra effort to vote against nominees, then, but SOC Investment Group is hoping that shareholders will take that step. After the DFEH lawsuit was filed, Activision Blizzard shareholders expected leadership and responsibility from the