Activision Blizzard Shareholders Call On Bobby Kotick, Board Members To Resign [UPDATE]

Update: 11/18/21 2:00 p.m. Central: Shannon Liao from The Washington Post has reported that Activision Blizzard employees started to sign an open petition calling for Bobby Kotick, CEO of the company. The petition has over 500 signatures at the time this update was published. It states that “We the Undersigned” no longer trust Bobby Kotick’s leadership as CEO of Activision Blizzard. The group’s demand is succinct and simple, saying, “We ask that Bobby Kotick remove himself as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and that shareholders be allowed to select the new CEO without the input of Bobby, who we are aware owns a substantial portion of the voting rights of the shareholders.” Activision Blizzard has approximately 9,500 employees, according to 2020 data. This petition represents more than 5%.

Original Story Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published an extensive report detailing evidence that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick was aware for years of the company’s long history of sexual misconduct. The report also points to Kotick withholding information about these events from the board of directors and surfaces abuse allegations levied at Kotick himself. You can read the full story here, but the revelations sparked an industry-wide outcry that resulted in over 100 Activision Blizzard employees staging an impromptu walkout yesterday demanding Kotick’s resignation. A group of stockholders seems to be echoing this sentiment. 

The Washington Post published a story revealing that several shareholders, led by the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) Investment Group, have penned a joint letter to Activision’s board of directors requesting Kotick to step down. The letter also asks for the resignation of two of the board’s longest-tenured members, Brian Kelly and Robert Morgado. Kelly is the chairman of the board. He joined Activision in 1995. Morgado, who has served Activision as a director since 1997, is the lead independent director. 

They have asked for Morgado and Kelly to resign by December 31. If they do not, the group vows not to vote for the reelection of current board members during next June’s annual shareholder’s meeting. According to the SOC, Post that current Activision leadership has repeatedly failed to foster a safe working environment for all employees and that the company needs “a reset button on the board.” Among their replacements, the group wishes to appoint at least one non-executive Activision Blizzard employee and wants a more diverse board overall.

Several investment groups have signed the letter and, as a whole, account for 4.8 million owned shares of Activision’s nearly 779 million total outstanding shares.  SOC Investment Group works with union-sponsored retirement funds. It “holds corporations accountable for their irresponsible corporate behavior and excessive executive compensation.” The SOC has previously opposed Kotick’s substantial income, which is one of the highest among U.S. executives. 

It’s worth noting that Activision’s board of directors issued a statement yesterday in response to the WSJ’s report, saying it “remains confident that Bobby Kotick appropriately addressed workplace issues brought to his attention.” Kotick himself sent a transcribed video message to Activision Blizzard employees calling the WSJThe report was “inaccurate, misleading”.

[Source: The Washington Post]