Editor’s Note: A lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.
Recent statements from Activision Blizzard address the company's failure to add a third woman to its board of directors, claiming that the shortcoming was a result of complications from its upcoming acquisition by Microsoft. The video games giant, per a California law enacted on January 1, 2019, was required to add at least one additional woman to its ten-person board of directors.
Despite being purchased by Microsoft earlier this year, Activision Blizzard continues to be mired in controversy. The list of allegations of abuse, sexual misconduct, and discrimination against members of the company is long and spans several years, and many of the claims surround a general culture of sexism. As a result of these sexual harassment and discrimination allegations, the company had multiple lawsuits filed against it. One of these lawsuits is ongoing, while another, which was filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was settled for $18 million. Notably, a portion of this settlement will be put into a Diversity and Inclusion Fund managed by Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, along with other company executives, are alleged to have played roles in perpetuating abuse and discrimination within the company.
The company's nascent purchase by Microsoft has already been somewhat controversial, but now has been blamed for other failures at Activision Blizzard. As pointed out by IGN, an annual earnings report from the company acknowledges that it failed to comply with a 2019 California law requiring companies to appoint more women to its board of directors. In the report, Activision Blizzard states that, despite the law going into effect at the start of 2019, the company did not start interviewing female candidates until 2021. Even then, no new board members were added because they "would cease to continue to serve on [the] Board of Directors upon consummation of [the] proposed transaction with Microsoft."
It was recently claimed that Kotick expressed interest in buying gaming news outlets, which perhaps seems more plausible now despite Kotick denying the rumors, as any examination of the above statement could likely result in some raised eyebrows. Setting aside the claim that this failure was impacted by the Microsoft purchase, the report plainly states that Activision Blizzard did not start looking for female candidates until 2021, two years after the law was put into place. 2021 is the same year that Activision Blizzard's alleged workplace culture began to get exposed to the public.
One might also argue that Activision Blizzard shouldn't have needed this law to be enacted to push for more diversity. While it may be unrealistic to expect every corporation to have a perfect 50-50 split of male and female staff, only two women on a ten-person board of directors is far too few. It was just a few months ago that Activision Blizzard urged employees against unionizing, indicating a disappointing lack of growth. Microsoft could ultimately help shake things up at Activision Blizzard, but it's not clear what the future may hold.
Source: IGN