Archived Investigations
Activision Blizzard Inc. (NasdaqGM: ATVI)
Activision Blizzard, Inc. and certain members of its Board of Directors are charged with making materially false and misleading statements and omissions in connection with the Company’s merger with Microsoft Corporation, violating federal securities laws.
According to the Complaint, beginning in July 2021, Activision Blizzard and its executives faced widespread allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination, triggering numerous regulatory investigations and employee walkouts. The Company’s former Chief Executive Officer Robert Kotick and former Chairman of the Board Brian Kelly allegedly exploited the resulting turmoil by engineering a hasty sale of the Company to Microsoft Corporation at a price below the Board’s internal valuation, enabling them to lock in hundreds of millions of dollars in personal profits before the misconduct allegations could undermine their positions or the deal. To execute this scheme, Defendants allegedly issued a series of materially false and misleading statements from the January 2022 merger announcement through closing, concealing the true motive, process, and fairness of the transaction.
The case is captioned The Arbitrage Fund v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., et al., 26-cv-00489 (D. Del.).