New York City sues Activision, claims Kotick ‘unfit’ to negotiate Microsoft deal
The lawsuit is demanding materials such as knowing what other parties were interested in purchasing Activision Blizzard.
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What you need to know
Activision Blizzard and its CEO Bobby Kotick continue to be targetted by allegations and new lawsuits. Now, New York City is joining in.
New York City is suing Activision Blizzard (as shared byAxios), claiming that Kotick was “unfit” to negotiate the sale of the company to Microsoft. The lawsuit is specifically being filed by the New York City Employees' Retirement System, who own stock in 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,” the suit states. As part of the lawsuit, New York City Employees' Retirement System is demanding information on the other unknown buyers who were reportedly interested in Activision Blizzard.
On Jan. 18, 2022, Microsoft agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard for $95 per share, a deal worth almost $69 billion.Activision Blizzard shareholders overwhelmingly agreedto the purchase on April 28, 2022, with over 98% of the shares voted “Yes.”
The deal, which is slated to close sometime in Microsoft’s fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, will add Activision Blizzard toXbox Game Studiosand Bethesda Softworks as an Xbox first-party publisher. It’s the largest video game industry acquisition ever, overshadowing Take-Two Interactive’s purchase of Zynga and Tencent’s investment into Supercell.
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Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter@SamuelTolbert.
