SOC Investment Group urges Activision shareholders to vote against Xbox deal
SOC Investment Group has urged fellow Activision Blizzard shareholders to vote against Microsoft’s proposed merger with the Call of Duty publisher.
It was announced in January that Microsoft intends to purchase Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal—the game industry’s biggest ever by some distance—that would also give the Xbox maker exclusive ownership of franchises including Warcraft, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot and Guitar Hero.
Activision Blizzard investors are set to vote for or against the proposed takeover in a special meeting of stockholders on April 28. The deal can’t go ahead unless the proposal to adopt the merger agreement is approved by the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of Activision Blizzard shares.
SOC Investment Group has been highly critical of Activision Blizzard’s response to recent sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits, and last November it called for the resignation of senior figures including CEO Bobby Kotick, chairman of the board Brian Kelly and lead independent director Robert Morgado.
On Thursday it wrote a letter to fellow shareholders calling on them to reject the proposed merger for two reasons.
“This transaction fails to properly value Activision and its future earnings potential, in significant part because it ignores the role that the sexual harassment crisis—and the Activision board’s incompetent handling of it—has played in delaying product releases and depressing the share price,” SOC argued.
It also said it’s “skeptical that any transaction with Microsoft (or a similar acquirer) would be viable, given the shift in the climate of anti-trust enforcement, as well as evident sources of potential harms to competition stemming from the merger”.
Microsoft has said it hopes
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