Beleaguered Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick last week was the subject of staff shortages and shareholder claims after his resignation, allegedly said he will “consider leaving” if he cannot quickly address the harassment issues that made headlines around the world this year.
the Wall Street Journal says Kotick met with executives at Blizzard last Friday and told them that “he would consider leaving the company if he can’t quickly resolve the video game giant’s culture issues.”
the WSJ Report adds:
Mr. Kotick, who has headed Activision for three decades, did not say he would step down in a Friday meeting with executives from the company’s Blizzard Entertainment unit, but left the option open if malpractice issues across the company weren’t “fixed at” speed “Said these people.
It is also said that at a separate meeting held on Friday, “Top executives at Activision Publishing told Mr. Kotick that some employees would not be satisfied unless they said he would quit,” and that “Mr. Kotick said he was ashamed of some of the incidents that happened on his station and apologized for the way he dealt with the problems that developed.
That’s nonsense. Kotick took over the helm of a reborn Activision in 2008. These “cultural issues” he speaks of are a systemic level of harassment, misogyny, and abuse, fueled by years of cultural neglect and sometimes Reportedly even committed and protected by Kotick himself.
The lawsuit that blew up the doors of the whole thing became public in July. He had months to mention that. Instead, during that time, he oversaw the appointment of the first woman to co-head Blizzard, just for her quitting after feeling “tokenized, marginalized and discriminated”, then saw that it was reported that Kotick himself was involved in abuse cases, including a voice mail threat of having one of his assistants killed.
He shouldn’t “consider” quitting. He should have done it already.
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