I heard there are allegations that he knew there were allegations against those making the allegation .
On a serious note, you don’t bring everything to the board.
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The super rich play a game called real life monopoly. They bring in those billions, not to spend, but to massage/rub their egos. They literally can’t spend their money, but are so upset about playing employees a living wage. Not all of them of course. Warren Buffet seems cool.
Some people do enjoy working and not all rewards are measured in money. Being active, both mentally and physically is the key to longevity, so sitting on a beach might sound idyllic to some, but for an overachiever, it’s a holiday, not a life plan.
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Can we also issue one allowing people to have children? I mean that is probably the biggest live long responsibility one can have and we don’t even bat an eye over that.
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Nowadays most executive contracts have claw back clauses that can cause him to forfeit his pay and bonuses if he is essentially forced out due to misbehavior.
It depends on how badly ActiBlizz wants to avoid upsetting investors with court battles. It comes down to whether the board wants to virtue signal by booting him out or make it quiet and clean letting him out the backdoor with a few suitcases of cash.
Twitter thread by the WSJ author with some exerpts for those who are behind the pay wall. https://twitter.com/benfritz/status/1460641017586094081
Bottom line - Kotick knew he had issues at Activision, knew he had issues at the Activision owned studios, had been accused of poor behavior and settled out of court for those. He hid it from the Board.
Jen Oneal was harassed earlier in her career when she worked at Activision. She was then paid less when she was chosen to come to Blizzard and be the Co-Leader. I assume Kotick and ATVI make the decisions on who leads the Studios/pay levels.
Here is the tweet with the excerpt about Jen Oneal. Read that one for details…and a 2007 party with stripper poles.
Ms. Oneal said in the email she had been sexually harassed earlier in her career at Activision, and she was paid less than her male counterpart at the helm of Blizzard, and wanted to discuss her resignation. “I have been tokenism, marginalized, and discriminated against.”
She is leaving for all the reasons we thought. ATVI/Kotick is in charge still and he has no reason to change. This is common among those with money and power. They play by different rules and are rarely held accountable. The whole industry (and many others) needs to clean up. Stop treating workers like garbage and women like toys.
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Lets not forget Warren has been working with Bill Gates on his philanthropic endeavors.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped many people.
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Old habits die hard.
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Pay Transparency is not a normal thing in corporations. They probably figured she wouldn’t find out.
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posted in the wrong thread originally
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After reading all the tweets Ben Fritz put out, all i can say it reminded me of what bobby said back in 2012…
“Think about what it’s like for my dating life when the first picture that comes up is me as the Devil”
It won’t be 10,000,000 x 200,000.
As posting this many tokens will crash its price far below 200k.
I know the picture. I also like the one of him as the Trade Prince Gallywix (Kotiwix). T&E have a video from 2019 about him being a soul selling goblin king.
Watch the first 2 mins.
Funny part is that many women in his circle don’t care about his reputation, they care about the money. Very powerful and deplorable men frequently have no shortage of admirers willing to put up with it.
After all, from 2016 - 2019 he dated Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook now Meta). Given how slimy FB is, this tells you something.
Something else - the majority of folks at Blizzard, and probably the other Studios/companies, are decent folks who want careers, enough money to eat/rent a decent place, maybe even own a home. They just want respect and to make awesome games. All their life work and passion is dragged through the mud by a goblin king and a very crappy work culture that enabled repulsive (and sometimes illegal) behavior. The friends I have there still have been upset for a long time - and others have left.
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sigh more very bad news. I’ll just sit in my garrison again I guess…
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https://imgur.com/Zq0iBJK
They always say it’s not the crime, it’s the cover up that gets you. In this case it’s BOTH.
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I don’t believe so, he’s savvy enough to not have stepped into that legal trap. He likely did inform the board multiple times.
It’s worth remembering he’s the majority shareholder. Not the biggest, but the majority. This means he de-facto owns the company and has full control. So unless the board wanted to sue him (expensive) it would be difficult to unseat him in a hostile manner.
You always inform the board of something that could create a liability, even if it’s a footnote in a report. Any sort of harassment claim is automatically a liability change so it should have been reported. He may not have said it out loud or given a song and dance, but there was definitely some sort of ‘informing’.
If not voluntarily or by the board of directors, than it can fall on the shareholders to force him out.
And if the share prices keep taking hits like this, there very well could be a shareholders meeting that sees big changes.
See my post above yours, they cannot. He controls more than 50% of the stock (shouldn’t say he owns there is weirdness here). But long story short it would likely take a lawsuit to remove him. A shareholder vote likely wouldn’t work.
Eh, the article claims he not only did not inform the Board of settlements for sexual assault/harassment at the Activision owned Studios (not Blizzard), he actively hid it from them. So yes, that is possibly a legal liability. That is why this was released by the Wall Street Journal. It impacts shareholders.
The Twitter thread I linked has some of the excerpts from the article for those behind the paywall.
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