Blizzard Activision Sued Over Company Culture - Page 24

On November 19 2021 06:26 Emnjay808 wrote:
We all know how this story ends. Sadly.

On November 19 2021 14:48 zeo wrote:

Yeah, Microsoft and Sony are looking to tank Acti-Blizzard stock and buy them out for cheap. Dont know how atractive Blizzard is to Sony but if they want a way into the PC market why not?

More than 1,500 Activision Blizzard Inc. employees have signed a petition calling for Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick’s removal, but it’s a group of just 10 people who will ultimately decide the embattled leader’s fate.

Since this week’s bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal that said Kotick was aware of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations at the company for years, didn’t inform the board of some of the reports, and that he himself was a perpetrator of misconduct, the video game industry has reverberated with calls to end his 30-year reign at the top. Shareholders, employees and even other gaming companies have criticized Activision’s lack of action.

Yet the board said in a statement Tuesday that it’s standing by him. In meetings across the company, executives relayed the same message.

Many people have questioned why the board is supporting Kotick when the situation at Activision has become publicly toxic and detrimental to the company’s stock. But this is a loyal group that has stood by the CEO through several massive crises before, such as his 2010 legal battle with the creators of Call of Duty. The board, mostly men, includes five people who have been connected to Activision for at least 18 years.

Two of the seats are occupied by Kotick and his longtime business partner, Brian Kelly, who together purchased their first stake in Activision in 1990. Kelly is the board chairman. Robert Morgado, the lead independent director, is a former CEO of Warner Music Group who was forced to resign after a controversial restructuring plan and has been on Activision’s board since 1997. Robert Corti is a longtime executive of Avon Products Inc. who has held a seat since 2003.

A fifth director, Peter Nolan, a senior advisor to private-equity giant Leonard Green & Partners, also began serving on Activision’s board in 2003 although he took a leave for several years following the company’s merger with Vivendi Games. He rejoined in 2014.

In other words, half of Activision Blizzard’s board has been together for nearly two decades. Three of the others — Dawn Ostroff, Casey Wasserman and Barry Meyer — are longtime Hollywood insiders who have undoubtedly brushed shoulders with Kotick during his many years in Los Angeles. Kotick has long been plugged into the movie business and even appeared in the 2011 film Moneyball. He launched an Activision film and TV division six years ago.

Reveta Bowers, one of only two women on the board, joined in 2018. She is an independent governance and organizational consultant for non-profit organizations. She previously served on the board of the Walt Disney Co. Hendrik Hartong III was vice president of marketing at Activision from 1996-1998. He’s currently the CEO of private equity firm Brynwood Partners and has been a director on Activision’s board since 2015.

There’s another reason the board may not be ready to show Kotick the door just yet: They’ve been making many millions of dollars together for years. In 2003, the year Corti and Nolan joined the board, Activision Blizzard was trading at around $2. Now, even after shedding about 32% this year due to the ongoing crisis, shares are hovering around $63.

Some current and former employees of Activision Blizzard have described the company’s upper ranks as a “boys’ club” where being friends with the top executives is the best way to get promoted. Perhaps that’s also why Kotick remains in charge.

On November 17 2021 20:25 WombaT wrote:
It can be, alternatively it can just legitimately be a rationale for using information that isn’t necessarily admissible in a court of law to form opinions, rather than being tethered to the law.

Exhibit A, a person has settled sexual harassment claims to keep them out of court. Said person is top dog at a company with a litany of credible claims about a culture of harassment at their company. Said person admitted to threatening a woman over the phone. Said person had a company-wide email sent out that was so bad in acknowledging problems that it prompted a walk-out, and he even stuck another woman’s name on it to boot

Is said person likely to be a remotely good choice to steer the company away from the controversy and elicit the cultural reform needed?

Based on what’s out there it’s a pretty big no from me, best case for Kotick he’s not shown a sensitivity and adeptness in this domain, worst case he was an active participant.

Being an asshole isn’t a criminal offence though, and I would apply different standards to if I were judging criminality, or in a jury or whatever.

"It’s also said that at a separate meeting on Friday “top executives of Activision Publishing relayed to Mr. Kotick that some employees wouldn’t be satisfied unless he resigned, according to those people”, and that “Mr. Kotick said he was ashamed of some of the incidents that had happened on his watch and apologized for how he has handled the unfolding problems”.

This is bullshit. Kotick took charge of a reborn Activision in 2008. Those “culture problems” he’s talking about are a systemic level of harassment, misogyny and abuse, fostered through years of cultural neglect and at times even reportedly committed and protected by Kotick himself.

The lawsuit which blew the doors off this whole thing became public knowledge in July. He has had months to address this. Instead during that time he oversaw the appointment of the first woman to co-lead Blizzard, only for her to quit after feeling “tokenized, marginalized, and discriminated against”, then saw it reported that Kotick himself took part in instances of abuse, including threatening in a voicemail to have one of his assistants killed.

He shouldn’t be “considering” quitting. He should have already done it."

On November 22 2021 08:16 Artisreal wrote:
did you do a study of the gazillion of twitter posts to come to that assumption?

On November 22 2021 08:16 Artisreal wrote:
did you do a study of the gazillion of twitter posts to come to that assumption?

On November 22 2021 10:05 kramvti wrote:

have you had your head in the sand for the last 5 years?

On November 23 2021 07:18 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
O'Neal was making less than Ybarra? LOL. Richard Hoeg covers this topic is a very academic, middle of the road manner. He calls Activision-Blizzard the "dumbest company in the world" for paying O'Neal less than Ybarra. When you get comical hyperbole out of Hoeg .... you are doing something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoKQmY3mpU0&t=882s

this is so dumb it is hard to believe it is real.

It is clear each successive Blizzard leader is making way less than their predecessor. Morhaime as CEO made a King's ransom. JAB as "president" prolly made a lot, but a fraction of what Morhaime made. The new twin heads were "co-leaders". WTF does a "co-leader" make? Prolly a tiny fraction of what Morhaime makes.

We've gone from an all powerful CEO/Founder to a Prez to twin "co-leaders". WTF? Blizzard is burning to the ground. Originally , the founders of Silicon and Synapse along with their first employees revelled in their culture of chaos. They named their company "Chaos" for a short time. Welp, its 30 years later and we've got a some chaos boys.

On November 23 2021 08:02 WombaT wrote:

That’s, legitimately your take?

On November 23 2021 08:15 JimmyJRaynor wrote:

yes, what has Blizzard made in the past 5 years? Compare that to what Blizz made in any other 5 year time period. All the top talent is gone.



Look for ATVI to continue moving dev resources away from Irvine CA and towards Albany, NY. Doing so diffuses this situation and allows them to pay their employees less money. You can pay someone under 100K in Albany and they can easily afford a fully detached house not far from work. That employee can live the American dream. That can't happen if you pay that same employee 150K in Irvine.

On November 23 2021 08:15 JimmyJRaynor wrote:

yes, what has Blizzard made in the past 5 years? Compare that to what Blizz made in any other 5 year time period. All the top talent is gone.