Read Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s email to employees about the Microsoft acquisition

theverge.com:

Since Activision Blizzard was sued in July by the state of California for a culture of “constant sexual harassment,” among many other troubling issues, the company has been in a state of controversy. There were a pair of employee walkouts, and more than 1,500 employees signed a petition to remove CEO Bobby Kotick. An Activision Blizzard spokesperson recently told the Wall Street Journal that 37 people had exited the company, and 44 have been disciplined as part of its investigations.

Kotick himself was the center of another WSJ report saying the publisher’s former CEO was not only aware of but participated in the company’s pervasive toxic culture. Employees called for Kotick to step down not long after the report was published, as the bosses of both PlayStation and Microsoft told their employees they were troubled by the report.

Now, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer is in line to run the company as Microsoft has a deal to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion to bolster Game Pass and, supposedly, its metaverse ambitions. According to a press release, “Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and he and his team will maintain their focus on driving efforts to further strengthen the company’s culture and accelerate business growth.” After that, the business will report to Spencer.

You can see what Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told their employees here, and below, we’ve included Kotick’s letter to workers at Activision.

Team,

Today is an incredibly exciting day. As we continue our journey to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment, we will eventually do so as part of Microsoft. I am certain that our incredible talent and extraordinary games combined with our