New York City has filed its own lawsuit against Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard is being sued by New York City for allegedly rushing into Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of the company. The lawsuit claims the deal was rushed in an effort to protect CEO Bobby Kotick and other board members from legal liability over their handling of sexual harassment and abuse allegations that surfaced last summer.
The lawsuit was unearthed by the team at Axios, and is technically a "220 complaint" that allows stockholders to force companies to share financial details when they have been accused of wrongdoing. The suit is being brought by New York City Employees' Retirement System, as well as pension funds for different public employees of the city. These groups hold shares of Activision Blizzard stock.
The city's argument is that the share price being offered in Microsoft's sudden acquisition of Activision Blizzard ($95/share, to be precise), is a serious undervaluation of the company, given that it represents a 1 percent premium of the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher's stock price prior to the filing of a lawsuit by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
It's a semi-complicated financial argument that launches into a direct accusation against CEO Bobby Kotick: that he and other board members rushed to process the acquisition in order to escape legal liability for breach of fiduciary duty. That breach relates to the torrent of sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination claims that the company has faced during Kotick's tenure.
"Kotick has been Activision’s CEO since 1993 (prior to Activision-Blizzard merger in 2008). It is now clear that during this lengthy tenure, Kotick was aware of numerous credible allegations of misconduct by the company’s senior
Read more on gamedeveloper.com
