Activision Blizzard Sued by New York City Officials - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 May 2022 / 2,868 Views
A new lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard by the New York City Employees' Retirement System and pension funds for the city’s teachers, police and firefighters.
The lawsuit was filed on April 26 in Delaware and accuses Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick of rushing to sell the company to Microsoft as a way to escape liability for misconduct, according to a report from Axios who received a public version of the suit from the office of NYC’s comptroller.
The New York City group owns Activision Blizzard stock and says the management at the gaming company has hurt its value. They are demanding the gaming company to provide material related to the Microsoft acquisition, information on the five possible buyers cited by Activision, board memos, and more.
The group has been asking the gaming giant for internal documents since last fall to find out what Kotick knew of the sexual misconduct at Activision Blizzard.
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," reads the lawsuit. "But it wasn't."
The New York City group alleges the Microsoft acquisition allows "Kotick and his fellow directors a means to escape liability for their egregious breaches of fiduciary duty."
The lawsuit also says Microsoft paying $95 per share undervalues Activision Blizzard, which was trading near that amount since before the scandals became public last summer.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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This seems like political use of a lawsuit since 98% of shareholders approved and they received a nice premium, and at most MS saved their shares from plummeting more plus the premium paid.
Seems like it. NY has been suing everything and everyone lately. Guess that's what happens once the mobs get cleaned up.
I wonder if this will cause Kotick to leave without his golden parachute :) unlikely
I bet Phil is seeing just how much of a liability Kotick is, if he didn't already know
