So he left before the investigation, that doesn’t excuse him for ignore it when it was brought to him before he left.
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Even though you are the president of a company you still have Activision to answer to (Mr. Kotick) and the board of directors.
So there is no way for us to know what he could or could not do.
Also the news tells us a lot but in the case of Mike it is a he says she says unless that evidence can stand up in court.
So there is no way of knowing his role in the whole mess with 100% degree of certainty. We can only speculate at best. I don’t like to speculate or assume things like this.
Further we don’t know exactly how many were or are involved in this mess. How many higher ups involved other than Mr. Kotick. If you have members of the board of directors and some investors then you could have a real problem as far as changing things goes.
Nope. They’re all being cashed out. There won’t be a board and there won’t be investors besides those of Microsoft when the deal closes. It’s not a merger.
Several have severely blurred the lines. Bobby Kotick never physically or verbally abused any women. Nor was he present when it was done. The claim that he ordered any inappropriate firings is unproven. He SHOULD have and MAY have known what was going on and put a stop to it but that’s the limit of his culpability.
Oh I see the board of directors and investors don’t mean a thing because Microsoft bought out Blizz two decades ago right. Now see what I am saying, I am talking about the time when Mike was, you know working at Blizz that is unless he still is working for them secretly then you would have a point.
A person that doesn’t get involved in an environment that is surrounded by those that are involved could be afraid of trying to change things. Surrounded by those things where you are trained to ignore it. Let it slide under the rug. Then fire those that say otherwise.
According to what I have seen Mr Kotick has had his hand in that same bad cookie jar. He has danced to the fiddler’s tunes and in time he will have to pay the fiddler.
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Must be a dream you had.
He screamed and yelled at a female assistant in his office and scared the life out of her.
He sent her an inter office memo stating that he would kill her.
check the news about his abuse.
You’ll see all the news about this evil man.
Here’s one clip:
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/report-activision-blizzard-ceo-bobby-kotick-threatened-to-have-an-assistant-killed-in-a-voicemail-210608.html
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I’d rather leave that to the court instead of discussing this on a forum. Mike is one of the people who had power over to solve the problem as the Blizzard CEO and closer to his workers than, say Bobby Kotick.
Naturally employees bid his help and appears he did nothing because the problematic person was allegedly an acquaintance of someone or he got ordered to cut ties immediately from anyone involved from the chairmen above. That’s how companies roll; to remove and sweep any problem under the rug instead of dealing with them to distance themselves.
There were also many who fled over to the Riot Entertainment from Blizzard at the recent years. They more likely given a silent let-go instead of quitting voluntarily and we all know Riot got through drama a few years back as well.
We don’t know for sure but one thing is certain, that they had the power to prevent most of this issue if they were to take some control at their hand personally. They could even prevent it from spread instead of awaiting it to cease.
I’m not claiming that it’s any easy to be a CEO or keep that status, nor it’s any less stress than any other job, but it’s clear that higher ups evaded their responsibility and it bit them later on.
By the time the California state investigations started, Mike stepped down after it became imminent when some evidence found and it hardly can be a coincidence. Same as entire Activision-Blizzard getting handed over to the Microsoft under all this bad light while they repeatedly say it has nothing to do with it.
It’s irrelevant. Mike Morhaime wasn’t trying to change anything. Nor was Bobby Kotick. In the coming months things will change.
I should have been more specific. That’s a the boss is a malignant narcissist thing not a sexual harassment thing. I’ve seen and experienced worse. It’s not pleasant but usually not actionable either.
He could have done something to stop it. If he knew and was told not to do anything, he should have gone public with the issues. My point being, he’s not a good person. He’d rather cover it up or stay silent to protect himself and/or his money.
Investigations like this often take months, even years. Just because he was gone when the investigation was finished and charges were laid, doesn’t mean he didn’t know. Or did know.
He left before it started. It’s still probable based on employee accounts, that he was well aware of what was going on, fired one person over bringing it up, and ignoring the rest.
So CEOs of publicly traded companies hold absolute power. Power that cannot be taken away and they cannot be fired from their position by anyone.
I know something about business that says otherwise and also have an article on tap that proves that isn’t the case. So Mike has people to answer to and if those people told him not do do anything about it then he would have no choice but to obey them. So unless Mike had the highest amount of shares in his own company then he wouldn’t have absolute power. The same is true for Kotick. Also I have read of Kotick that hid things from his board of directors. He wouldn’t have to hide anything if they didn’t have any authority over him.
Unless they had absolute authority that cannot be taken away from them then no there isn’t much they can do unless their higher ups say they can. Plus it is worse if the higher ups are the ones that are some of the predators.
I know you are well aware that fear can cause people to not take action. Even though they have power to do so.
The California lawsuit was in July 2021. Two years before that would be 2019. Mike stepped down in 2018. So there was no investigation at that time period.
No it isn’t irrelevant when your current boss tells you to do nothing. Fearing reprisal could be more than strong enough for either to do anything about it. But with Kotick though I am gonna say that he had his hand in the cookie jar of being a predator.
The same fear that causes rape victims to never report the rape to the police is the same type of fear that can cause those with a lot of power in a company to do nothing at all.
Elon didn’t know how to do what he is known to do.
He had money to hire people (based on qualifications, not on race/gender/furniture preferences) to build and execute the service he dreamed of providing.
I believe Elon learned from Michael Morhaime.
Prove me wrong.
Maybe, but he is still a bad person for doing nothing and saying nothing.
Morhaime didn’t have a boss when he was building the company culture. Everyone was very hands off with him. Also when people tell you to cover up sexual harassment and you do it’s on you. Morhaime is gone. He’s not going to pay a price for any of it. It’s irrelevant.
With absolutely no evidence. Were it true someone would come forward. Enabler sure predator nope.
Exactly but I still wish they took it a bit personally instead of thinking as a company. We know that some of the people left from Blizzard, while in fact those maybe the problematic people given silent let-go after complaints started to stack up. Those people fled to the other companies and started problems there too.
As it is a wide running thing, they tried not to slander everyone in the industry. They tried to solve the issue without creating drama, while they had to ask authorities about it at some point for some individuals and remove their credit for abusing their status.
I think it later revealed by the chairmen that Kotick informed them, just they didn’t care. We don’t know if that was a move for protecting Kotick or not, but I think it wasn’t and Kotick really informed higher ups to get some insight which he got none. That’s how companies process problems at a limited capacity to distant themselves.
Mike announced it at October 3rd, the last quarter of 2018. Sure, there was before that but you have to agree that two years is a pretty loose term when you mention an investigation. He could have sniffed the air when people threatened to sue him way before things break out. Also, he stood as an advisor for quite some time after his step down.
Again, we can’t know for sure but I still wish that they take issues at their hands instead of sweeping things under the rug.
Fear is a strange animal, that is why I cannot say he is either bad or good. I don’t know the pressure he was under. Just like I can’t say to those that have been raped but not reported. You had the power to get justice for yourself and others. While that statement is true unless I know the amount of fear and pressure that victim went through there is no way that I could tell that to them. That is why I cannot say he is a bad person for not saying or doing something about it.
So you have proof that the harassment goes all the way back to when Blizzard Entertainment was Silicon and Synapse. Then you had better prove it. I am talking about when Silicon and Synapse became Blizzard Entertainment and they became a publicly traded company with shares. Sure he no doubt keeps his role since he is one of the founders. But still that doesn’t mean he didn’t have people to answer to when that was going on.
Plus you have no way of proving that after the name change that everyone was hands off with him.
When you are a publicly traded company you and you do have the role of CEO you do have bosses to answer to. Even though you are one of the founders, maybe even the only founder left. Still that doesn’t mean you have no one to answer to.
Also this was probably something that was going on in the background till it got to where it is now. I believe it started taking off like a bird after 2008 with the merger of Activision.
He has had his hand in such things in the past. Sure it might not be with Blizz’s workers but he no doubt has had his own share of sexual harassment lawsuits so he is not entirely squeaky clean.
He hid things from his own board of directors. Take a look at the link provided below for more info.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/16/22785457/activision-blizzard-bobby-kotick-ceo-wall-street-journal-wsj-report-allegations
What you actually think that Mike had someone that would be an inside man that will give him clues as to what is gonna happen before it happens. I say that at most, Mike seen what was going on there, but out of fear he didn’t say or do anything about it. Then decided to leave when he did because he know he just couldn’t keep working there under the current conditions of the work place.
Yeah, that… Now I remember. At one point, early of this whole thing break down, board of directors simply said he informed them about the misconducts. Then he deliberately hid information from them; whoever was in charge at that time, is as guilty as him. No exceptions.
To think of it, board of directors also pointed Bobby Kotick as the leader for addressing the workplace misconduct issues.
https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/activision-blizzard-board-remains-confident-in-bobby-koticks-leadership-3096911
Dated 16th November, same day article with your link.
California state acted on allegations of workplace conditions and they wouldn’t do anything if no one complained before hand; which goes beyond 2 years time frame only. That’s what I think.
As for inside man thing, that’s a possibility too but knowing they have dedicated lawyers and social network that a CEO could have, it’d hardly be needed.
That investigation could’ve started at any time. But it didn’t, so the only way he could’ve seen it as writing on the wall would be if he had enough people to inform him of complaints being sent to the California government. Complaints of harassment is not something that is common six o’clock news.
I agree 100% with you!
I am so sick of women being abused in the workplace and in general.
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Silicon and Synapse never sold shares. They sold out to Davidson’s and Associates. Blizzard never sold shares as an independent corporation. The only reason they have the name Blizzard is because Davidson’s and associates thought Chaos Studios, Inc., their name at that time, was too scary for children. You want to stop moving the goal posts now ? You don’t even know the history of the company. I’m not the one claiming Kotick was a predator with zero proof. I’m just telling you it all started under Morhaime’s leadership the same as it went on under Kotick’s.