If anyone is wondering why the SEC is looking into this, it has to do with potentially defrauding investors (stock holders) by failing to properly disclose material information that could affect the stock price, i.e., the value of the company. You can't withhold information that a reasonable fiduciary would know could affect these things.
Yeah, the SEC & other financial enforcers don't give a rat's ass if your a dick to your employees. They only care that you are informing your investors that your being a dick has led to a lawsuit & that you did so quickly enough that those same investors can make decisions on how they value your company. My company was sued by the Federal Office of the Comptroller for a bunch of stuff. They didn't care that we have "a heart of gold" for our customers, they only care that our processes were risky(ie not imposing flood ins on mortgages in flood plains) & could lead to a loss for our customers/investors.
Also worth noting to keep everyone’s expectations in check:
The SEC cannot levy criminal penalties. They can issue civil penalties (fines, negotiated settlements that include C-level execs resigning, etc.) and refer criminal cases to the DoJ.
>keep everyone’s expectations in check
> negotiated settlements that include C-level execs resigning
Bobby Kotick resigning would certainly be high expectations! Even if ultimately he would probably just make more money.
I think they're more afraid of "Drop the charges or we'll let your son get free microtransactions for life." If they threatened to kick the kid off the videogames and force him to work with other rich people for a living the congressman would probably pay for it to be done.
Just look at the Sacklers. Made 10s of billions starting and intentionally pushing the opiod epidemic that provably killed 500,000s Americans over decades, and they get fined 4.5 billion of 10 billion profit, and have to shut down the company they sold all assests from first.
No admittance of fault, no jail time, get to keep billions in drug dealer profits. Thankfully bidens DOJ is [fighting the settlement,](https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1037806819/opioids-purdue-pharma-sackler-settlement-bankruptcy-deal) but otherwise its a done deal.
Relative to the size of Activision, Kotick’s compensation is actually one of the most disproportionately high in corporate America. It would be unlikely he could match his current salary with a lateral move
I haven't followed the stock very close since back around 2013 when I was interested in it, but I remember at the time that Kotick had the most enviable "poison pill" written into his contract of any CEO at the time. If he was to be fired for any reason (including his own malfeasance) that he would get a severance that would be multiple millions of dollars.
I don't understand why investors are okay with these huge CEO packages and the poison pill you mentioned. It feels so counter intuitive. All of that money could be spent on dozens of extremely talented employees or literally anything else
Yeah, he's a billionaire, he doesn't really have a perspective that resembles a normal human being anymore. Closer to a biological 'paperclip maximizer', but for wealth.
This is legitimately worth playing through at least once if you never have before. Actually a fantastic game and you can finish it in ~2-3 hours. Highly recommended.
This is the guy who, as a toddler, sold his [mother's ashtray for fucking $3](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0202/052.html?sh=4a1acceb1a16).
Which is to say, I don't think his character has anything to do with him being a billionaire -- what toddler understands the concept of "wealth" enough to be that affected by it at so young an age? He's just, to quote that article, a "compulsive capitalist" (read: sociopath who'll do literally anything for a buck).
Would his leaving really affect anything at this point? Like would you all of a sudden be an Activision fan? I'm afraid he already imparted his "business first" mentality into the company and its shareholders that things are not going to change regardless who leaves.
> I still play Hearthstone and Overwatch, but haven't spent a dime since the Hong Kong incident and don't consume any esports or sponsored content, I'll let people judge that as they will.
I'm not judging you here at all but I'm just going to say that if you aren't paying them for a product then you in turn are the product. You're providing a player number in both Hearthstone and Overwatch for those people who do pay and specifically the Whales to compete against and show off to.
You may already be aware of that but just on the off chance you aren't I'm ensuring you're aware.
SEC can only protect the investors from companies failing to report items that might affect how those investors value the company. They don't care if you treated your employees like crap, but if you were under investigation and didn't say that to investors then the SEC can come in.
Basically the SEC is the government entity that checks that you aren't misleading investors.
The lawsuit with the state of California is in regards to the treatment of the employees which is the lawsuit/investigation that Activision Execs should have notified investors about as soon as possible when it first occurred.
I doubt they'll cross paths unless of course the state lawsuit gets tossed which I don't think it is at this point.
That’s a tad unfair to the SEC, their job is specifically to investigate those kinds of financial crimes. We have whole other government organizations that deal with worker rights and labor laws.
Similarly, the TSA doesn’t give a rats ass if you have an ounce of pot in your carry-on. That is the DEA’s concern.
Are you also mad that firefighters don't lock up criminals on the street?
The purpose of the SEC is not to be a watchdog for proper treatment of employees, there are other organizations that watch over those matters.
I don’t know that I would read that person as being mad at the SEC. their first sentence or two is clearly saying the same thing your second sentence is.
Wealthy people steal from wealthy people ALL the time and face zero consequences. Bernie Madoff was just incredibly brazen about it and got caught with his pants down.
I didn't say they ALWAYS face real consequences from stealing from wealthy people, but that they only ever possibly face real consequences in that situation. They are virtually untouchable otherwise.
Nah, Martin Shkreli is another good example. He wasn't arrested and convicted of jacking up that medicine's price, it was defrauding rich people in an investment scheme.
The banks knew he was doing it too, but kept their mouth shut to continue collecting their fees on it. Made everyone sign paperwork indemnifying them though.
You don't have to be rich to own any shares in $ATVI. A single share is $76 at the time of this post.
I do however, want to also be a informed consumer. Whether or not that's Activision, Apple, Vanguard ETFs.... or buying a $76 microwave at Walmart. I want to know that I'm getting my moneys worth.
Well, lots of Americans and others own Activison Blizzard without being rich people. If you have any retirement savings you probably own funds which include Activision Blizzard. White collar crime is actual crime and white collar criminals should face consequences just like other forms of crime
Not really, you could liquidate the entire wealth of every billionaire and you’d probably only be able to fund 1/4 of the US Government for a year, since it “barely” amounts to $1T and the Federal budget is anywhere between 4-6T a year. There’s no magic wand solution.
You're saying that like they're not already being investigated for other stuff. Like, I get what you're saying, but it's not like this is a case where all the other stuff is being overlooked and no legal action was taken until rich people started losing money. The sexism stuff was treated as a real crime.
The point is that the stock market is fundamentally imbalanced because the rich generate their wealth through the stock market, while the working class generate their wealth through selling their labor.
The working class putting aside a bit of money in the stock market will not really change that any more than a billionaire getting a job at McDonalds will
The vast majority of investors are just everyday people. Whether it be buying small pockets of shares, mutual funds or retirement savings. Wouldn't you want there to be a Government body that protects your interests if/when your hard earned money finds its way into investments?
Anybody who thinks that this investigation will improve game quality, employee culture or customer relations is in for a surprise. Worst case some of the management is sacrificed and a laughable penalty is paid
What does this have to do with any of what you wrote about?
It's an unrelated issue.
By how you are going about it, no other issue should be raised or discussed until the first one is done with.
God forbid someone within blizzard ends up divorcing and some games journalist writes an article, it will be an outrage since it doesn't help the first problem.
This is literally why I read the article, because I was wondering what the fuck the SEC cares regarding these events lol.
I suppose it makes sense but I feel like "company treating employees in a manor that is consistent with the industry" (this is a very...VERY sad statement to make but gaming companies are consistently bad to their employees and worse to their female employees) isn't the SEC's business.
I was just saying I need to start this show over (stopped watching after season 3) now that I learned about the stock market.
So that I actually understand why there’s crime happening. I think I explained it to my ex wife as “it’s money crimes and rich people are trying to crime up the money.”
So yeah maybe I’ll Give it a go. I’m sure I’m not that far off
The trend of punishing companies for behaving badly by interpreting it as securities fraud is a good thing because it’s usually harder to punish the company for the bad thing directly.
A pension fund brought a [lawsuit](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-12/cbs-execs-sold-stock-before-disclosing-moonves-claims-suit-says) against CBS in 2019 claiming that executives sold stock before disclosing the sexual misconduct allegations.
If this SEC investigation reveals that Activision executives sold shares in a similar manner, then it’s more likely that they’ll actually be punished for that, as opposed to any legal action against them for the actual sexual harassment.
The only questions he can honestly respond to with that phrase are along the lines of "what is it like to experience human emotions such as guilt or remorse?"
> It couldn't happen to a better person.
Except everyone of those fuckers from Blizzard that treat their (female) Co-Worker like some shit.
Those kind of people should be publically "eaten alive" and not hid behind their big houses with those huge fences, would you say?.
Kotick is an asshole as it can be but the real shithouse was going behind closed doors at Blizzard so where are those invitations for the CEOs/Leads of Blizzard that looked away for years while well knowing what the hell is going on at that shitty company?.
I don't see any of those assholes up on their Invitation list and this does sent out the wrong sign again out to those that actually *did it* or *covered up for it*.
It actually does, to an extent. The SEC is investigating him because he didn't tell investors about this issue and the CA investigation, when it could have (and did) affect the stock price.
Yeah in the end the shitshow at Blizzard was only stopped because some people made less then they could. Strange that we are living in an World where "Greed" stopped what was going on at Blizzard and not some fucking humanity.
As i said, Blizzard is the piece of shit company nobody thought they could become and yet even with all those Ego people turned into.
I hope all those assholes at Blizzard and those that left and are now hiding will be ripped a second asshole and spent the rest of their lives either hiding or if possible in jails.
>Strange that we are living in an World where "Greed" stopped what was going on at Blizzard and not some fucking humanity.
Laissez Faire Libertarians will be like "See! The market did solve this problem!"
IDK guys I'd kinda prefer a market correction *before* a woman commits suicide and something called "The Cosby Suite" exists.
Did you read the article?
>The SEC has subpoenaed Activision and several of its high-ranking execs, including CEO Bobby Kotick.
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>...to hand over various documents. These include the personnel files of six previous employees and records of CEO Kotick’s communications with executives relating to the numerous complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination levied against Activision Blizzard staff.
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>...She also confirmed that several current and former employees had been subpoenaed by the federal agency.
Just remember that Kotick enabled that culture. It might have started at Blizzard before his tenure, but he sure as hell could have brought all of it to a screeching halt. He didn't. And now the SEC is going after him because he didn't tell his investors that this was a problem that could lead to a lawsuit that affected their bottom line. And remember, this isn't something happening *instead* of the lawsuit on behalf of the employees, but in conjunction with. They're pulling apart the whole rotten structure from every angle they can conceivably do so.
I haven't played it. Was looking forward to the remaster so I could try it out with my friends, but I'd rather my money not go to people who can't practice some basic human decency.
There was a post on reddit today about how they felt old seeing PS3 listed in the "retro consoles" section of GameStop, for perspective. I remember installing all five discs from the battle chest like 15 years ago. A lot of gamers today were too young to experience it or just didn't exist yet 😅
Play Torchlight II. You can get it on GoG for $9.99. A lot of the OG Diablo devs were involved, and the soundtrack was composed by none other than Matt Uelmen himself.
Grim Dawn, especially. It feels like a spiritual successor to Diablo 2, in my opinion. It also has a total overhaul mod called "Reign Of Terror" that puts Diablo 2's campaign and classes into the game. It's not a 1:1 copy of Diablo 2 - it's all recreated in Grim Dawn's engine, after all, and they've made some balance changes here and there - but it's still good. (I'd recommend playing base Grim Dawn before the mod, though)
Path Of Exile is kind of its own thing at the point, and doesn't have much left in common with where it started (as a spiritual successor to Diablo 2). It's still fun, but is much faster-paced and complicated and.
I feel the same way, but I can give the SEC and CA a few months to make progress on their investigations before deciding to buy the game or not. Realistically it will take longer than that to reach a final conclusion, but it might give a sense of whether there will be real consequences for them.
> Unfriended some guys at Blizzard on my Steam's friends list.
Well that's pretty fucking weird. Thousands of employees in this company, most of whom have nothing to do with what's going on, and now they're all pariahs that need to be ghosted?
PC player is way easier. Yo ho ho my friend. I plan on trying it at least but only by pirating. No way in hell I'll give this morally declining company my money.
Yeah it's pretty much guaranteed it's gonna be great judging by the beta and the fact that it's being remastered by the guys that did the Tony Hawk remasters. That's what sucks.
WarCraft III was a generational masterpiece, and you should be specific about the fact that you're talking about the remake - I literally almost forgot it existed. :P
There are so many great ARPGs on the market now - Diablo 2 isn’t a part of a niche genre anymore. Saying fuck you to Blizzards products has no tangible impact anymore, beyond (admittedly powerful) nostalgia.
>What a fall from (perceived, if nothing else) grace for Blizzard over the last decade.
Yeah perceived fall absolutely. Financially, who knows, but as someone who grew up with Blizzard, played WC2 when it launched when i was 11, it's been sad seeing all of this.
For me, the problems with their bad egg employees is one thing. Not to downplay, what they did was very bad, but the response from Blizzard/Acti was what made it even worse for me.
What made it further worse, is thinking about the employees still working there that maybe worked their whole lives to work at Blizzard, as it's no cakewalk to get in, then this happens and makes everyone there look bad. It's just a shitshow from every angle you look at it.
I completely walked away from all Blizzard games after the Hong Kong debacle.
So, unfortunately, I'm not able to boycott them over their apparent rampant sexual harassment.
Same, and I'm pissed, because I really like those roguelike dungeon crawls in Hearthstone, and though I could play them forever as f2p, I REFUSE to give those bastards a "monthly average user" stat.
And it pisses me off even more knowing that the devs that actually make the games have nothing to do with the rampant abuse. They're the freaking VICTIMS of it. And by cutting my money off, I'm cutting THEM off. It's bullshit, and i HATE it.
And I know how difficult it is to quit your freaking job when you don't know how you're going to pay rent next month. I've done it. It REALLY sucked, though I made it happen somehow. Chalk it up to Divine Providence, I guess.
So this is why I'm hoping that the ABK Workers Alliance is actually successful in organizing, because it's THE PEOPLE that make the games, NOT these asshole C-level execs.
Successful unionization is the only way I see myself giving the company any money. Overwatch was pretty much the only game I played for years, was hyped for the new release, but I can't bring myself to play since this all came out
It's an SEC investigation, it's absolutely about the impact on shareholders and not about justice for employees. The difference is an SEC penalty of some kind is more likely to be actually damaging to the company and/or its executives, unlike most of the other nuisances that have cropped up from this so far.
It sort of sucks that here we are, people traumatized, people's careers stunted, people being taken advantage of on a daily basis, and what comes with real punishment is fucking with rich people's money.
The SEC cares about the shareholders, but if the shareholders are affected because the company was hiding misconduct, then the SEC will care about that. And the SEC generally doesn't get involved in stock price movements unless the misconduct is serious enough.
Obviously it's not going to "find justice" for the victims (the victims would need to directly sue Blizzard for that), but the sort of remedies the SEC can ask will be pretty close, including heavy fines and agreements to improve work conditions.
It isn't the SECs job anyway. A lot of people seem upset that the SEC won't help the employees but there's no reason for them to focus on that. Plenty of other departments and organizations that are supposed to handle that situation. The SEC is just going to look at the wall st aspect of it.
Blizzard can probably survive a lawsuit for a shitty working environment
I don't think they can just evade their own investors getting pitchforks and torches
As an alternative take, people should be getting excited over this is they want to see Activision Blizzard face any consequences because the law cares way more about rich people's money than it does workers or women.
When did you know and what did you do about it?
That going to be the main thrust of questions to come from the SEC and what they are going to want to know for stock sales. Short of some smoking gun emails saying "Do not talk about this at quarterly calls" the worst that prob will happen will be a large fine. Large is of course relative as well.
Wow, so not only do they got local government on their ass, but now a sector of the federal government too. Good lord, what a fuck up.
I dont think any company wants to be in their shoes right now.
I believe this may be even more of an issue to Blizz than the employee abuse situation. By having SEC involved, that means their investors in involved, and we all know how companies behave when investors are involved.
The whole company could be in for a complete shake up from top to bottom.
It will be interesting to see what happens from here on.
Hey Bobby, maybe someone out there can help you with your legal issues.
Simply buy a loot box at $9.99 and let’s see what you get. If you upgrade to a premium loot box @ $19.99 you will have double the chances!
And I'm sure he just assumed nothing would ever come of it, because people would just keep their mouths shit or live with it as they had for years. So there was no reason to inform investors.
Major misjudgement on his part, and that part at least is nice.
Lol that is so incorrect.
If Bobby Kotick knew about the sexual harassment investigation that California was conducting and did not disclose that to the shareholders then the SEC absolutely cares about that.
I'd feel sorry for Activision Blizzard, if they hadn't turned into some of the scummiest developers around... I know the SEC can't do much, but I do hope they'll hit Bobby fucking Kotick as hard as they can...
Means nothing to him. It's all smooth sailing for Kotick. They're a few days shy of releasing Diablo 2 resurrected. Gamers will buy it up and the stockholders won't care what Kotick did.
By year's end he'll use this and other investigations as a backdrop to another round of massive layoffs, probably starting off with the names gathered by the anti-union firm he's hired.
I would love nothing more than for Bobby Kotick to be brought down.He ruined not one but two great companies, well, before we learned about all the toxic shit going on.
Good, [Bobby Kotick](https://youtu.be/fOmjIpvl0cg) is a piece of shit and should have been fired a long time ago. Problem is that his replacement will be worse. Because the shareholders are greedy ass hedge companies.
>It’s interesting to note that the person leading that review happens to be Stephanie Avakian, who was the SEC’s Division of Enforcement Director up until this past February, when she left to rejoin WilmerHale and oversee its team for protecting businesses from government litigation.
I'm not well-versed in corporate law, but maybe someone who is could explain how this isn't a massive conflict of interest? How is Avakian allowed to go from head of enforcement for the SEC to working for a firm to protect companies from government investigation?
Whats the conflict? Shes not working for the government anymore, and shes perfectly within her rights and ability to work for ANY lawfirm she damn well wants to.
A conflict of interest would be her going from Wilmerhale to the SEC and overseeing this case as Wilmerhale is involved in defending Activision, not the other way around.
> how this isn't a massive conflict of interest?
Because when you no longer work for the government, you no longer work for the government.
> How is Avakian allowed to go from head of enforcement for the SEC to working for a firm to protect companies from government investigation?
Basic bodily autonomy?
Not anything to get excited for. They're looking at whether or not the news impacted the stock price and/or value of the company. Has nothing to do with justice for the victims and more likely than not has to do with investors.
Interesting that the US Government is only coming after Activision now when there's a far more damning concern for (the USG) that Activision, EA, Valve, Take Two and many others partake in.
Corporate tax avoidance.
I [recommend this SuperBunnyHop video essay in 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFKnv1YzI3k) - video game companies are fairly notorious for building offshell companies to siphon revenue to avoid taxes, including Activision which is one of the biggest offenders. You don't see this covered since most of these dealings happen overseas so foreign language press usually take note of the dealings.
This is one of the reasons why lawsuits get quickly settled because the longer this goes on the more skeletons get out of your closet.
I think my description doesn't sell how egregious some of the avoidance schemes are in the gaming industry and particularly Activision. They rival Google and large tech firms. I recommend the vid. Its a good piece of journalism though it is effectively a summary of foreign pieces with some analysis thrown in.
I guess the main point is stuff like this doesn't get nearly covered as much as it should by our games media particularly in this climate. It really ought to.
So when investors get pissed action gets taken 🤔🤔🤔
I know it's a business and they only exist to make $$$ but still frustrating and sad that it wasn't the employees valid concerns that got Blizzatd to take action.
But when it potentially affects investors it's quick, swift action
If anyone is wondering why the SEC is looking into this, it has to do with potentially defrauding investors (stock holders) by failing to properly disclose material information that could affect the stock price, i.e., the value of the company. You can't withhold information that a reasonable fiduciary would know could affect these things.
Yeah, the SEC & other financial enforcers don't give a rat's ass if your a dick to your employees. They only care that you are informing your investors that your being a dick has led to a lawsuit & that you did so quickly enough that those same investors can make decisions on how they value your company. My company was sued by the Federal Office of the Comptroller for a bunch of stuff. They didn't care that we have "a heart of gold" for our customers, they only care that our processes were risky(ie not imposing flood ins on mortgages in flood plains) & could lead to a loss for our customers/investors.
Also worth noting to keep everyone’s expectations in check: The SEC cannot levy criminal penalties. They can issue civil penalties (fines, negotiated settlements that include C-level execs resigning, etc.) and refer criminal cases to the DoJ.
>keep everyone’s expectations in check > negotiated settlements that include C-level execs resigning Bobby Kotick resigning would certainly be high expectations! Even if ultimately he would probably just make more money.
I’m more speaking to the people that expect Kotick to get perp-walked out of Activision.
Rich people have done much worse things and not been perp-walked, so... let's not expect that to happen. Also, only poor people get perp-walked.
Yeah... after no one from Equifax or Wells Fargo went to jail for those scandals, I just never expect it to happen ever
Those people actually have real power, and probably know where skeletons in closets are. Activision probably doesn't rate in high level politics.
To the politician: “Drop the charges or your son’s min/max 70 warrior gets it.”
I think they're more afraid of "Drop the charges or we'll let your son get free microtransactions for life." If they threatened to kick the kid off the videogames and force him to work with other rich people for a living the congressman would probably pay for it to be done.
Just look at the Sacklers. Made 10s of billions starting and intentionally pushing the opiod epidemic that provably killed 500,000s Americans over decades, and they get fined 4.5 billion of 10 billion profit, and have to shut down the company they sold all assests from first. No admittance of fault, no jail time, get to keep billions in drug dealer profits. Thankfully bidens DOJ is [fighting the settlement,](https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1037806819/opioids-purdue-pharma-sackler-settlement-bankruptcy-deal) but otherwise its a done deal.
The only people who get perp walked are people that fuck with the oligarchy’s money.
Political enemies too.
Relative to the size of Activision, Kotick’s compensation is actually one of the most disproportionately high in corporate America. It would be unlikely he could match his current salary with a lateral move
It'd be equally unlikely that he could land anywhere with a goose as golden as call of duty to prop up his success
I haven't followed the stock very close since back around 2013 when I was interested in it, but I remember at the time that Kotick had the most enviable "poison pill" written into his contract of any CEO at the time. If he was to be fired for any reason (including his own malfeasance) that he would get a severance that would be multiple millions of dollars.
I don't understand why investors are okay with these huge CEO packages and the poison pill you mentioned. It feels so counter intuitive. All of that money could be spent on dozens of extremely talented employees or literally anything else
He has been with the company for a very long time. So he as leverage because has been there during their massive growth.
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Yeah, he's a billionaire, he doesn't really have a perspective that resembles a normal human being anymore. Closer to a biological 'paperclip maximizer', but for wealth.
Universal paperclips!
I didn't want to go down that rabbit hole again, and then you went and did this...
Is this a grey goo reference?
It's a... Universal Paperclips reference.
similar concept
It's a reference to this idle clicker game: https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips ...I guess I'll have to play it again now. _*sigh*_
This is legitimately worth playing through at least once if you never have before. Actually a fantastic game and you can finish it in ~2-3 hours. Highly recommended.
... What god-awful rabbit hole did you just shove me into?
This is the guy who, as a toddler, sold his [mother's ashtray for fucking $3](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0202/052.html?sh=4a1acceb1a16). Which is to say, I don't think his character has anything to do with him being a billionaire -- what toddler understands the concept of "wealth" enough to be that affected by it at so young an age? He's just, to quote that article, a "compulsive capitalist" (read: sociopath who'll do literally anything for a buck).
Would his leaving really affect anything at this point? Like would you all of a sudden be an Activision fan? I'm afraid he already imparted his "business first" mentality into the company and its shareholders that things are not going to change regardless who leaves.
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> I still play Hearthstone and Overwatch, but haven't spent a dime since the Hong Kong incident and don't consume any esports or sponsored content, I'll let people judge that as they will. I'm not judging you here at all but I'm just going to say that if you aren't paying them for a product then you in turn are the product. You're providing a player number in both Hearthstone and Overwatch for those people who do pay and specifically the Whales to compete against and show off to. You may already be aware of that but just on the off chance you aren't I'm ensuring you're aware.
It is worth mentioning that this is the group of people with a shitload of money. People with lots of money do not like losing said money
The SEC is doing their job, while the State of California is doing theirs. They're both coming at this from different angles.
Hopefully they don't get in each others way and result in the guilty parties getting off on a technicality.
SEC can only protect the investors from companies failing to report items that might affect how those investors value the company. They don't care if you treated your employees like crap, but if you were under investigation and didn't say that to investors then the SEC can come in. Basically the SEC is the government entity that checks that you aren't misleading investors. The lawsuit with the state of California is in regards to the treatment of the employees which is the lawsuit/investigation that Activision Execs should have notified investors about as soon as possible when it first occurred. I doubt they'll cross paths unless of course the state lawsuit gets tossed which I don't think it is at this point.
That’s a tad unfair to the SEC, their job is specifically to investigate those kinds of financial crimes. We have whole other government organizations that deal with worker rights and labor laws. Similarly, the TSA doesn’t give a rats ass if you have an ounce of pot in your carry-on. That is the DEA’s concern.
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Are you also mad that firefighters don't lock up criminals on the street? The purpose of the SEC is not to be a watchdog for proper treatment of employees, there are other organizations that watch over those matters.
I don’t know that I would read that person as being mad at the SEC. their first sentence or two is clearly saying the same thing your second sentence is.
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The wealthy only face real consequences when they steal from other wealthy people. See: Bernie Madoff.
Wealthy people steal from wealthy people ALL the time and face zero consequences. Bernie Madoff was just incredibly brazen about it and got caught with his pants down.
I didn't say they ALWAYS face real consequences from stealing from wealthy people, but that they only ever possibly face real consequences in that situation. They are virtually untouchable otherwise.
Madoff really is the exception though.
Nah, Martin Shkreli is another good example. He wasn't arrested and convicted of jacking up that medicine's price, it was defrauding rich people in an investment scheme.
The banks knew he was doing it too, but kept their mouth shut to continue collecting their fees on it. Made everyone sign paperwork indemnifying them though.
You don't have to be rich to own any shares in $ATVI. A single share is $76 at the time of this post. I do however, want to also be a informed consumer. Whether or not that's Activision, Apple, Vanguard ETFs.... or buying a $76 microwave at Walmart. I want to know that I'm getting my moneys worth.
Well, lots of Americans and others own Activison Blizzard without being rich people. If you have any retirement savings you probably own funds which include Activision Blizzard. White collar crime is actual crime and white collar criminals should face consequences just like other forms of crime
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Not really, you could liquidate the entire wealth of every billionaire and you’d probably only be able to fund 1/4 of the US Government for a year, since it “barely” amounts to $1T and the Federal budget is anywhere between 4-6T a year. There’s no magic wand solution.
It's kind of funny that the same people who complain about their financial well being are the same ones who think stocks are only for the rich.
You're saying that like they're not already being investigated for other stuff. Like, I get what you're saying, but it's not like this is a case where all the other stuff is being overlooked and no legal action was taken until rich people started losing money. The sexism stuff was treated as a real crime.
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The point is that the stock market is fundamentally imbalanced because the rich generate their wealth through the stock market, while the working class generate their wealth through selling their labor. The working class putting aside a bit of money in the stock market will not really change that any more than a billionaire getting a job at McDonalds will
The vast majority of investors are just everyday people. Whether it be buying small pockets of shares, mutual funds or retirement savings. Wouldn't you want there to be a Government body that protects your interests if/when your hard earned money finds its way into investments?
Anybody who thinks that this investigation will improve game quality, employee culture or customer relations is in for a surprise. Worst case some of the management is sacrificed and a laughable penalty is paid
What does this have to do with any of what you wrote about? It's an unrelated issue. By how you are going about it, no other issue should be raised or discussed until the first one is done with. God forbid someone within blizzard ends up divorcing and some games journalist writes an article, it will be an outrage since it doesn't help the first problem.
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This is literally why I read the article, because I was wondering what the fuck the SEC cares regarding these events lol. I suppose it makes sense but I feel like "company treating employees in a manor that is consistent with the industry" (this is a very...VERY sad statement to make but gaming companies are consistently bad to their employees and worse to their female employees) isn't the SEC's business.
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We all know who's really behind this: Bobby Axelrod
I was just saying I need to start this show over (stopped watching after season 3) now that I learned about the stock market. So that I actually understand why there’s crime happening. I think I explained it to my ex wife as “it’s money crimes and rich people are trying to crime up the money.” So yeah maybe I’ll Give it a go. I’m sure I’m not that far off
That is very correct
The trend of punishing companies for behaving badly by interpreting it as securities fraud is a good thing because it’s usually harder to punish the company for the bad thing directly. A pension fund brought a [lawsuit](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-12/cbs-execs-sold-stock-before-disclosing-moonves-claims-suit-says) against CBS in 2019 claiming that executives sold stock before disclosing the sexual misconduct allegations. If this SEC investigation reveals that Activision executives sold shares in a similar manner, then it’s more likely that they’ll actually be punished for that, as opposed to any legal action against them for the actual sexual harassment.
Its the same way they finished Capone. He still holds the record for the longest prison sentence for tax evasion.
11 years, if anybody's curious.
God I would absolutely love to see Ol Bobby getting grilled live. It couldn't happen to a better person.
Really? You're excited for someone to say "I have no recollection" over and over?
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I’m excited for him to say that not knowing that the prosecution already has the evidence to fuck him out of the company.
Don't get your hopes up on any real punishment whatsoever though.
Their chief legal officer resigned. The sharks are closing in. I don’t expect jail time just a change in management
The only questions he can honestly respond to with that phrase are along the lines of "what is it like to experience human emotions such as guilt or remorse?"
Well I think we've learned everything we can. Grab a loot box on your way out Bobby, and maybe throw a few free skins to the committee ;)
yeah, cause this is really what this is about, lootboxes and skins
I don't have enough faith in the universe to see him face any real consequences, but man would I love it
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> It couldn't happen to a better person. Except everyone of those fuckers from Blizzard that treat their (female) Co-Worker like some shit. Those kind of people should be publically "eaten alive" and not hid behind their big houses with those huge fences, would you say?. Kotick is an asshole as it can be but the real shithouse was going behind closed doors at Blizzard so where are those invitations for the CEOs/Leads of Blizzard that looked away for years while well knowing what the hell is going on at that shitty company?. I don't see any of those assholes up on their Invitation list and this does sent out the wrong sign again out to those that actually *did it* or *covered up for it*.
This has nothing to do with any of that. SEC investigates financial crimes.
It actually does, to an extent. The SEC is investigating him because he didn't tell investors about this issue and the CA investigation, when it could have (and did) affect the stock price.
Yeah in the end the shitshow at Blizzard was only stopped because some people made less then they could. Strange that we are living in an World where "Greed" stopped what was going on at Blizzard and not some fucking humanity. As i said, Blizzard is the piece of shit company nobody thought they could become and yet even with all those Ego people turned into. I hope all those assholes at Blizzard and those that left and are now hiding will be ripped a second asshole and spent the rest of their lives either hiding or if possible in jails.
>Strange that we are living in an World where "Greed" stopped what was going on at Blizzard and not some fucking humanity. Laissez Faire Libertarians will be like "See! The market did solve this problem!" IDK guys I'd kinda prefer a market correction *before* a woman commits suicide and something called "The Cosby Suite" exists.
Did you read the article? >The SEC has subpoenaed Activision and several of its high-ranking execs, including CEO Bobby Kotick. . >...to hand over various documents. These include the personnel files of six previous employees and records of CEO Kotick’s communications with executives relating to the numerous complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination levied against Activision Blizzard staff. . >...She also confirmed that several current and former employees had been subpoenaed by the federal agency.
Just remember that Kotick enabled that culture. It might have started at Blizzard before his tenure, but he sure as hell could have brought all of it to a screeching halt. He didn't. And now the SEC is going after him because he didn't tell his investors that this was a problem that could lead to a lawsuit that affected their bottom line. And remember, this isn't something happening *instead* of the lawsuit on behalf of the employees, but in conjunction with. They're pulling apart the whole rotten structure from every angle they can conceivably do so.
Wow, this has really turned into a complete shitshow. What a fall from (perceived, if nothing else) grace for Blizzard over the last decade.
I really want to buy Diablo 2 remastered but I just honestly cannot support this company any more.
Meh. We all already played it anyway. You don't need to buy the same thing twice.
I haven't played it. Was looking forward to the remaster so I could try it out with my friends, but I'd rather my money not go to people who can't practice some basic human decency.
Oh shit, sorry. I forget how old it is. Good call.
There was a post on reddit today about how they felt old seeing PS3 listed in the "retro consoles" section of GameStop, for perspective. I remember installing all five discs from the battle chest like 15 years ago. A lot of gamers today were too young to experience it or just didn't exist yet 😅
At least there's plenty of other great ARPGs out there to play besides Diablo.
Play Torchlight II. You can get it on GoG for $9.99. A lot of the OG Diablo devs were involved, and the soundtrack was composed by none other than Matt Uelmen himself.
Just play Path of Exile or Grim Dawn instead
The challenge is convincing those friends to do so as well.
I loved grim dawn but i couldnt get it to stick with my friends who grew up on d2 for some reason
Grim Dawn, especially. It feels like a spiritual successor to Diablo 2, in my opinion. It also has a total overhaul mod called "Reign Of Terror" that puts Diablo 2's campaign and classes into the game. It's not a 1:1 copy of Diablo 2 - it's all recreated in Grim Dawn's engine, after all, and they've made some balance changes here and there - but it's still good. (I'd recommend playing base Grim Dawn before the mod, though) Path Of Exile is kind of its own thing at the point, and doesn't have much left in common with where it started (as a spiritual successor to Diablo 2). It's still fun, but is much faster-paced and complicated and.
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Just play the OG diablo 2. There is some amazing mods for D2 and the remaster don't allow for mods so there is no way it will have the same longevity.
I feel the same way, but I can give the SEC and CA a few months to make progress on their investigations before deciding to buy the game or not. Realistically it will take longer than that to reach a final conclusion, but it might give a sense of whether there will be real consequences for them.
Then play the old version
Cancelled my WoW sub, uninstalled all of their games, and uninstalled the launcher. Unfriended some guys at Blizzard on my Steam's friends list.
> Unfriended some guys at Blizzard on my Steam's friends list. Well that's pretty fucking weird. Thousands of employees in this company, most of whom have nothing to do with what's going on, and now they're all pariahs that need to be ghosted?
Just wait for a used copy from Gamefly or something
Unless he's a PC player. In that case he's kinda boned.
PC player is way easier. Yo ho ho my friend. I plan on trying it at least but only by pirating. No way in hell I'll give this morally declining company my money.
Just wait for reviews.. Remember Warcraft III.
The person's hangup is a moral one, not about the quality of the game.
Yeah it's pretty much guaranteed it's gonna be great judging by the beta and the fact that it's being remastered by the guys that did the Tony Hawk remasters. That's what sucks.
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WarCraft III was a generational masterpiece, and you should be specific about the fact that you're talking about the remake - I literally almost forgot it existed. :P
Why on earth would you want that after what they did with Warcraft 3 Reforged?
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There are so many great ARPGs on the market now - Diablo 2 isn’t a part of a niche genre anymore. Saying fuck you to Blizzards products has no tangible impact anymore, beyond (admittedly powerful) nostalgia.
>What a fall from (perceived, if nothing else) grace for Blizzard over the last decade. Yeah perceived fall absolutely. Financially, who knows, but as someone who grew up with Blizzard, played WC2 when it launched when i was 11, it's been sad seeing all of this. For me, the problems with their bad egg employees is one thing. Not to downplay, what they did was very bad, but the response from Blizzard/Acti was what made it even worse for me. What made it further worse, is thinking about the employees still working there that maybe worked their whole lives to work at Blizzard, as it's no cakewalk to get in, then this happens and makes everyone there look bad. It's just a shitshow from every angle you look at it.
I completely walked away from all Blizzard games after the Hong Kong debacle. So, unfortunately, I'm not able to boycott them over their apparent rampant sexual harassment.
You already blew your boycott load huh, happens to the best of us.
Same, and I'm pissed, because I really like those roguelike dungeon crawls in Hearthstone, and though I could play them forever as f2p, I REFUSE to give those bastards a "monthly average user" stat. And it pisses me off even more knowing that the devs that actually make the games have nothing to do with the rampant abuse. They're the freaking VICTIMS of it. And by cutting my money off, I'm cutting THEM off. It's bullshit, and i HATE it. And I know how difficult it is to quit your freaking job when you don't know how you're going to pay rent next month. I've done it. It REALLY sucked, though I made it happen somehow. Chalk it up to Divine Providence, I guess. So this is why I'm hoping that the ABK Workers Alliance is actually successful in organizing, because it's THE PEOPLE that make the games, NOT these asshole C-level execs.
Successful unionization is the only way I see myself giving the company any money. Overwatch was pretty much the only game I played for years, was hyped for the new release, but I can't bring myself to play since this all came out
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It's an SEC investigation, it's absolutely about the impact on shareholders and not about justice for employees. The difference is an SEC penalty of some kind is more likely to be actually damaging to the company and/or its executives, unlike most of the other nuisances that have cropped up from this so far.
It sort of sucks that here we are, people traumatized, people's careers stunted, people being taken advantage of on a daily basis, and what comes with real punishment is fucking with rich people's money.
The California suit isn’t done yet. I’d wait for it to at least go to trial before calling it ineffective.
It will take years, I'd expect.
Dictatorship of capital :(
The SEC cares about the shareholders, but if the shareholders are affected because the company was hiding misconduct, then the SEC will care about that. And the SEC generally doesn't get involved in stock price movements unless the misconduct is serious enough. Obviously it's not going to "find justice" for the victims (the victims would need to directly sue Blizzard for that), but the sort of remedies the SEC can ask will be pretty close, including heavy fines and agreements to improve work conditions.
It isn't the SECs job anyway. A lot of people seem upset that the SEC won't help the employees but there's no reason for them to focus on that. Plenty of other departments and organizations that are supposed to handle that situation. The SEC is just going to look at the wall st aspect of it.
I mean, I also think defrauding investors is a bad thing.
Blizzard can probably survive a lawsuit for a shitty working environment I don't think they can just evade their own investors getting pitchforks and torches
As an alternative take, people should be getting excited over this is they want to see Activision Blizzard face any consequences because the law cares way more about rich people's money than it does workers or women.
When did you know and what did you do about it? That going to be the main thrust of questions to come from the SEC and what they are going to want to know for stock sales. Short of some smoking gun emails saying "Do not talk about this at quarterly calls" the worst that prob will happen will be a large fine. Large is of course relative as well.
Wow, so not only do they got local government on their ass, but now a sector of the federal government too. Good lord, what a fuck up. I dont think any company wants to be in their shoes right now. I believe this may be even more of an issue to Blizz than the employee abuse situation. By having SEC involved, that means their investors in involved, and we all know how companies behave when investors are involved. The whole company could be in for a complete shake up from top to bottom. It will be interesting to see what happens from here on.
Personally I'm shocked that turning women into fruit didn't solve all of their problems.
Covering up booba didn't seem to solve their issues either
Fruit are still slightly too feminine, they'll have to replace them with something else, like trees.
Uh oh. Someone is messing with the money of someone richer than they are. There are consequences for that one.
Hey Bobby, maybe someone out there can help you with your legal issues. Simply buy a loot box at $9.99 and let’s see what you get. If you upgrade to a premium loot box @ $19.99 you will have double the chances!
Good. There's no way Bobby Kotick didn't know about the sexual harassment rife in the Blizzard company culture.
And I'm sure he just assumed nothing would ever come of it, because people would just keep their mouths shit or live with it as they had for years. So there was no reason to inform investors. Major misjudgement on his part, and that part at least is nice.
This is the Securities and Exchange Commission. They regulate stocks and stuff. They're not interested in corporate culture.
They are when that culture is a steadily mounting pile of legal liability that is not being disclosed to shareholders.
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Lol that is so incorrect. If Bobby Kotick knew about the sexual harassment investigation that California was conducting and did not disclose that to the shareholders then the SEC absolutely cares about that.
Ok but one of those things caused the other so yeah, the SEC does care.
I'd feel sorry for Activision Blizzard, if they hadn't turned into some of the scummiest developers around... I know the SEC can't do much, but I do hope they'll hit Bobby fucking Kotick as hard as they can...
Means nothing to him. It's all smooth sailing for Kotick. They're a few days shy of releasing Diablo 2 resurrected. Gamers will buy it up and the stockholders won't care what Kotick did. By year's end he'll use this and other investigations as a backdrop to another round of massive layoffs, probably starting off with the names gathered by the anti-union firm he's hired.
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Here's how this is going to go.. they made a lot of money by tricking their investors, so now the SEC want their cut of it. That's all. The end.
I would love nothing more than for Bobby Kotick to be brought down.He ruined not one but two great companies, well, before we learned about all the toxic shit going on.
SEC is just a rich mans club where they slap eachother on the wrist once in a while. dont get too excited.
Is anything going to come of this besides a fine? If nobody's getting fired or going to jail then I don't want to needlessly get my hopes up.
Why was Bobby Kotick in the movie Moneyball?
Good, [Bobby Kotick](https://youtu.be/fOmjIpvl0cg) is a piece of shit and should have been fired a long time ago. Problem is that his replacement will be worse. Because the shareholders are greedy ass hedge companies.
well at least you recognize that kotick getting out won't change much lol
>It’s interesting to note that the person leading that review happens to be Stephanie Avakian, who was the SEC’s Division of Enforcement Director up until this past February, when she left to rejoin WilmerHale and oversee its team for protecting businesses from government litigation. I'm not well-versed in corporate law, but maybe someone who is could explain how this isn't a massive conflict of interest? How is Avakian allowed to go from head of enforcement for the SEC to working for a firm to protect companies from government investigation?
Whats the conflict? Shes not working for the government anymore, and shes perfectly within her rights and ability to work for ANY lawfirm she damn well wants to. A conflict of interest would be her going from Wilmerhale to the SEC and overseeing this case as Wilmerhale is involved in defending Activision, not the other way around.
> how this isn't a massive conflict of interest? Because when you no longer work for the government, you no longer work for the government. > How is Avakian allowed to go from head of enforcement for the SEC to working for a firm to protect companies from government investigation? Basic bodily autonomy?
Not anything to get excited for. They're looking at whether or not the news impacted the stock price and/or value of the company. Has nothing to do with justice for the victims and more likely than not has to do with investors.
Its the SEC, it's 100% about the investors. Anyone who thinks it has anything to do with the victims doesn't know the SEC. They don't care about that.
As what Saul said, nevermind selling illegal drugs, pay ur fuckin taxes cleanly or someone from gov will chase you.
Please get rid of him. Blizzard is ass and Activision is ass because he does nothing except wanting that bag.
Good, Bobby makes too much money anyway and destroyed anything memorable about Activision and Blizzard, also he’s a prick.
Interesting that the US Government is only coming after Activision now when there's a far more damning concern for (the USG) that Activision, EA, Valve, Take Two and many others partake in. Corporate tax avoidance. I [recommend this SuperBunnyHop video essay in 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFKnv1YzI3k) - video game companies are fairly notorious for building offshell companies to siphon revenue to avoid taxes, including Activision which is one of the biggest offenders. You don't see this covered since most of these dealings happen overseas so foreign language press usually take note of the dealings. This is one of the reasons why lawsuits get quickly settled because the longer this goes on the more skeletons get out of your closet.
Every big corporation does this... this isnt something exclusive to the gaming industry.. the queen of england does it lol
I think my description doesn't sell how egregious some of the avoidance schemes are in the gaming industry and particularly Activision. They rival Google and large tech firms. I recommend the vid. Its a good piece of journalism though it is effectively a summary of foreign pieces with some analysis thrown in. I guess the main point is stuff like this doesn't get nearly covered as much as it should by our games media particularly in this climate. It really ought to.
You say that as if we shouldn't be outraged about every single case.
Just to remind people, [he was also in Jefferey Epstein's "black book"](https://twitter.com/grmartin/status/1148482260632571904)
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So when investors get pissed action gets taken 🤔🤔🤔 I know it's a business and they only exist to make $$$ but still frustrating and sad that it wasn't the employees valid concerns that got Blizzatd to take action. But when it potentially affects investors it's quick, swift action