the Wall Street Journal
The allegations center on the trio’s purchase of $108 million in Activision Blizzard stock just days before Microsoft’s January sale was announced. Post-deal, those same shares are now worth about $168 million, giving the three men a quick $60 million win.
The timing of the deal, the sums involved, and any of the men’s personal ties to Activision Blizzard (more on that in a moment) are certainly suspect. As a result, “the Department of Justice is investigating whether any of the option deals violated insider trading laws,” while the Securities and Exchange Commission is “separately conducting a civil insider trading investigation.”
Of the three men, Barry Diller is the central figure here, having served on the board of directors of Coca-Cola alongside Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. Or at least he did until Kotick recently “resigned” from this role. in the wake of historical allegations of abuse and harassment at Activision Blizzard. The two weren’t just casual colleagues either; Diller has referred to Kotick as “a longtime friend.”
Then again, Diller is also very close friends with Geffen, while Diller is married to von Furstenberg’s mother, so you can see why the SEC and the Justice Department both decided to investigate the deals. And don’t exactly have to work overtime putting the pieces together at the trio’s joints.
Speaking of with the WSJ Regarding the report, Diller said on record: “It was just a lucky bet. We have not responded to any information from anyone. It’s one of those coincidences,” while von Furstenberg told the paper he “before bought shares in Activision thinking that at some point Activision would either be privatized or eventually acquired.”
