Activision Blizzard must pay $35 million. This is a consequence of the numerous scandals of recent years.
In recent years, there have been many accusations and scandals surrounding Activision Blizzard. Looming over everything was the major sexism scandal, which spoke of discrimination and misconduct in the workplace and ultimately led to significant restructuring and layoffs. This was accompanied by an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which sought to find out whether Activision Blizzard communicated potential problems to investors.
Now an agreement has been reached that a fine of $35,000,000 (about 32 million euros) will be paid.
What were the accusations? The SEC conducted an investigation and concluded that Blizzard had violated several laws and regulations.
The SEC finds that Activision Blizzard [in the past] failed to implement necessary controls to investigate employee complaints of workplace misconduct, which resulted in a lack of ability to determine if there were larger issues that needed to be disclosed to investors. (…)
Moreover, it is not only poor corporate governance to ensure that former employees cannot speak directly with the SEC about potential violations – it is illegal.
What does Activision Blizzard say about it? A spokesperson for Activision told the Wall Street Journal that they are apparently satisfied with the decision:
As the order acknowledges, we have improved our disclosure process regarding workplaces and the wording of our separation agreements. We did this as part of our ongoing efforts to achieve operational excellence and transparency.
It is important to note that the SEC did not verify whether there was actually abuse, discrimination, and other misconduct in the workplace – that is not part of this investigation. It was simply about the lack of methods to collect reports of misconduct and pass them on to investors. This is necessary so that investors can get a better impression and better judge whether the current management meets expectations.
Therefore, this payment is a consequence of the scandals of recent years and not a new incident.
