The New York City Retirement Fund is administered by the New York State Comptroller’s Office, and includes the City’s employee retirement fund, which employs firefighters, police officers, and educators, as shareholders in Activision Blizzard. The New York City pension fund administrator filed the lawsuit in Delaware state court on April 26, arguing that Activision Blizzard’s management practices might damage the company’s value, according to the report. In their lawsuit, they seek information and records related to Activision Blizzard’s finances to determine Activision Blizzard’s management of misconduct within the company.
According to the plaintiffs, in October last year, they requested to review Activision Blizzard’s financial information and records to investigate whether the board of directors and management were concerned regarding the company’s failure to provide employees, especially minorities and women, with a safe and non-discriminatory work environment. and other allegations, follow-up has taken positive action. But during the review period, Activision Blizzard announced the acquisition of Microsoft in mid-January of this year. In this acquisition, Microsoft announced that it would buy it for $95 per share, which underestimated the actual value of Activision Blizzard, because last summer Before the scandal broke, the company’s share price was already close to that figure.
Plaintiffs say they believe the deal happened so quickly and at such a low price because Activision Blizzard board members, especially Bobby Kotick, are likely to be held liable in the future for failing to address allegations of wrongdoing with the company , if it merges with Microsoft, he can get rid of responsibility, no longer have to be held accountable, and can continue to serve as a senior executive.
The plaintiffs stated that they believed that Bobby Kotick was unfit to negotiate a corporate merger with Microsoft, that Bobby Kotick had responsibilities and obligations for the workplace the company had become, and that the board should have known he was unfit to negotiate a sale, but the board continued to do so.
