A new lawsuit flutters into the house at Activision Blizzard. This time the plaintiff is the city of New York City, or more precisely the Employees’ Retirement System and the city’s teachers’, police and fire departments’ pension plans. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware on April 26, and a public version of the New York City Court of Accounts has been available to the news website Axios since May 3.
The named groups of plaintiffs are said to own shares in Activision Blizzard and believe that the actions of management have significantly affected the value of the company. According to Axios, this form of lawsuit allows shareholders to pressure Activision Blizzard to disclose its business books and thus uncover possible wrongdoing. The plaintiffs are demanding a long list of documents related to the Microsoft takeover.
Since the fall, New York City has been urging Activision Blizzard to release documents, originally to find out how CEO Bobby Kotick was informed about sexual misconduct in their own ranks. Frustration is also expressed that the under-fire Bobby Kotick was able to conduct quick negotiations for the sale to Microsoft towards the end of 2021.
Bobby Kotick in New York’s sights
In particular, the CEO of Activision Blizzard does not come off well in the New York indictment. Regarding Bobby Kotick, the board is held accountable: “Given Kotick’s personal responsibility and liability for Activision’s broken workplace, the board should have realized that it was in no position to negotiate a sale of the company“.
Furthermore, the Microsoft deal, which only has to be approved by the supervisory authority, should “Kotick and his colleagues” have made possible “to escape liability for their egregious breaches of fiduciary duty.In addition, as the SOC investor group criticized before the shareholders voted on Microsoft’s takeover, the New York lawsuit also criticized Activision Blizzard’s financial undervaluation as a result of Microsoft’s offer of USD 95 per share.
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What remains is that Activision Blizzard can’t seem to get out of the avalanche of lawsuits, whether it’s about allegations of abuse in the workplace or the takeover deal with Microsoft. According to Axios, Activision Blizzard’s quarterly financial report shows that the company has had to deal with 18 lawsuits, complaints and investigations since last summer.
Source: axios
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