Activision’s Bobby Kotick raises possibility of leaving as CEO

The Wall Street Journal reports that Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard) has spoken out in internal talks about the possibility to leave the company.

Activision’s CEO since 1991 has been Kotick. Employee groups and investors have repeatedly demanded that he be fired. One week ago, the Journal published a report depicting Kotick as aware of multiple allegations of sexual harassment — including an alleged rape — that he either did not mention to his board or otherwise minimized their severity. Activision and its board have challenged that story as “a misleading view of Activision Blizzard and our CEO.”

The Journal’s latest story says Kotick had a meeting on Friday with Blizzard Entertainment executives that “stopped short of saying he would step down.” But if the sexual misconduct, discrimination, and toxic workplace problems battering the company over the past six months couldn’t be fixed “with speed,” he left the possibility open.

The Journal stated that it spoke to people familiar with the comments of Mr. Smith at the meeting.

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision at the end of July, alleging a pattern of workplace discrimination and harassment against women, particularly within Blizzard Entertainment, which joined Activision in 2008. The news caused an employee walkout, and J. Allen Brack was fired as president of Blizzard Entertainment.

Activision settled the lawsuit brought by U.S. at $18 million. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on similar grounds to the California DFEH claim. A shareholder lawsuit filed in August also alleges that the company’s negligent leadership harmed its share price. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating the company’s handling of discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct allegations.

Over 1,000 Activision Blizzard employees signed petitions calling on Kotick not to resign since then. The resignation of Kotick along with two Activision Blizzard Board members Brian Kelly (and Robert Morgado) was requested by a shareholder group on Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that, following a week in which several analysts downgraded the company’s stock, Truist Securities on Friday also called for a change in CEO. That comes along with the top executives for PlayStation and Xbox criticizing Activision in a note to their own employees, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer saying he was “evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard.”

[Disclosure: Casey Wasserman is on the board of directors for Activision Blizzard as well as the board of directors of Vox Media, Polygon’s parent company.]