Activision Blizzard, one of the largest gaming and entertainment companies, has fired 37 people since July last year after complaints of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior at work. Another 44 people were brought to disciplinary responsibility. About it writes Reuters, citing a company statement.
The company’s report on personnel decisions following the results of an internal investigation, as report The Wall Street Journal sources were supposed to make it public in December, but Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick chose not to. He explained that the press can distort data and exaggerate problems. A brief report on these measures says that over the past few months, the company has collected about 700 reports of inappropriate employee behavior, some of which dealt with the same incidents, the newspaper writes.
Activision Blizzard was at the center of a scandal in the summer of 2021. The U.S. Employment Equity Commission accused the company of constantly sexually harassing female employees, receiving less pay for the same or more work than men, while they are subject to more stringent requirements and are not promoted. Employees of the company claimed that the head of the company covered those involved in sexual harassment. In November 2021, several thousand employees demanded that Kotik be fired. He admitted that he might retire.
Meanwhile, on January 18, 2022, Microsoft Corporation announced about the decision to acquire Activision Blizzard, the developer of the cult games Warcraft, Diablo and Call of Duty, paying $68.7 billion for it. $95 will be paid for each share of Activision Blizzard, which is almost one and a half times higher than the closing level of the previous auction ($65.39) . After the deal was announced, Activision Blizzard’s premarket price rose by about a third.
The deal is expected to close in 2023 and once closed, Microsoft will become the third largest gaming company in the world by revenue after Tencent and Sony.