Despite telling board members otherwise, the Wall Street Journal reported today, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was not only well aware of reports of harassment and abuse at his company, but also complicit in them.
I wish this was even remotely surprising.
Kotick lost a lawsuit related to his handling of sexual harassment way back in 2007. Who knows what else he’s been up to since then.
Hopefully he finally loses his damn job at a minimum.
Solidarity with the walkout today
Solidarity with the walkout.
If you needed any other reason to doubt any of the moves ActiBlizz has made as disingenuous, look no farther than the section of the story that talks about Jen O’Neal, who was propped up as a a paragon of diversity! In the email the report cites detailing O’Neal’s resignation a month after being promoted, she reveals one of the reasons she was leaving is that she wasn’t being paid as much as the other co-CEO, Mike Ybarra.
Think about that… the company promotes this woman to the top of the company as proof that they can make positive change… and then they immediately pay her less than her equivalent male counterpart. Jesus fucking Christ.
Fire Bobby Kotick into the sun.
Absolutely sickening, but unsurprising because it’s all in line with the prior accounts that we heard this summer. Hope the employees are successful in forcing a change. Kotick, his board and anyone who ever turned a blind eye to this over the years deserve the worst.
what an absolute piece of shit
Update: As the board of Activision-Blizzard has cleared its “senior executives” of any wrongdoing, Bobby Kotick will also be staying on for the next financial year.
Cool. Love to see it. Love companies and executives.
IMO Activision Blizzard if it really stands by it’s findings should publish the final report with names redacted.
The word choice of “external advisors” speaks loudly. It wasn’t a 3rd party investigation it was a 3rd party risk assessment. Similar work but one gives you a report that just states facts while the other gives you a report that tells you how to avoid legal trouble.
I’m super interested to see what happens when the ink dries and they’re owned by MS because I have a feeling MS comes in with a much heavier hand. In the last 5 or so years MS has had a lot of gender discrimination allegations and they are trying pretty hard to shake that.
Microsoft stands to gain a lot by axing anyone they have reason to believe participated in gender discrimination at Activision Blizzard. Internally it’s a big power move not only to these new MS employees who just got acquired but it’s a power move company wide by showing they’re not afraid to get rid of people in what people might think are untouchable positions. Publicly they win by telling everyone “we got rid of the bad seeds”. And lastly they’re getting rid of people in positions that no one at MS cares about on a personal level and then they can move long standing MS employees in that they know they can trust to shape the culture.
