New York City has become the latest to sue Activision-Blizzard following the company’s numerous sexual misconduct scandals, alleging that CEO Bobby Kotick rushed the Microsoft sale to avoid liability.
Back on January 19, Microsoft shocked the gaming landscape by announcing they had purchased Activision-Blizzard for a whopping $70 billion.
The news came as Activision found itself under pressure from both outside and within after numerous lawsuits had been filed claiming that employees had been victims of sexual misconduct, among other allegations.
Now, a number of entities in New York’s public sector – ranging from firefighters, police and education – are claiming that Bobby Kotick rushed into the Microsoft deal to escape responsibility.
New York City sues Activision-Blizzard
According to Axios, the lawsuit, an action in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, allows stockholders to demand companies open their books – and as a result, expose potential wrongdoing.
Of note, they’re trying to discover if Kotick knew of the alleged sexual misconduct at the company and to what extent.
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“Given Kotick’s personal responsibility and liability for Activision’s broken workplace, it should have been clear to the Board that he was unfit to negotiate a sale of the Company,” the lawsuit stated.
This lawsuit is going for Kotick: saying he rushed into Microsoft's $95/share offer because of how much money he would make, and that the board accepted an offer with 30 days of WSJ's report in November of what was happening internally. pic.twitter.com/UjO93Xtjrf
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) May 4, 2022
The lawsuit also states that Microsoft’s offer “undervalues” the company at $95/share, but Kotick stood to make a big profit off the deal.
We’ll have to see what the future holds for the lawsuit and if it ends up causing some big issues for the company amid the Microsoft merger.
