By Tali Arbel

Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s most high-profile video game companies, confirmed a regulatory probe and said it is working to address complaints of workplace discrimination.

The Santa Monica, California, company said Tuesday that it is complying with a recent Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena sent to current and former employees and executives and the company itself on “employment matters and related issues.”

The Wall Street Journal had reported Monday that the SEC was investigating how the company had treated complaints of sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination and had subpoenaed senior executives including CEO Bobby Kotick, a well-known tech billionaire who is Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s ex-boyfriend. An SEC spokesman declined to comment.

Activision Blizzard also said Tuesday that it has cooperated with an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation into employment practices and that it is working with multiple regulators “on addressing and resolving workplace complaints it has received” and that it is committed to making the company “one of the best, most inclusive places to work.” It has hired a new “Chief People Officer” from Disney.

The company’s shares have dropped 20% in two months as legal woes build over an alleged culture of discrimination against women and minorities at the maker of Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft. The stock dropped 3.4% to $73.60 in Tuesday afternoon trading.

In late July, California's civil rights agency sued the company, alleging gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Employees staged a walkout to protest what they said was Activision's culture of sexism and discrimination.

A shareholder lawsuit in August said the company failed to disclose to investors that it was being investigated in California and that it had workplace culture issues that could result in legal problems. The shareholder suit noted unhappiness within the company, saying more than 2,000 current and former Activision employees signed a petition criticizing the company’s response to the California suit as “insulting" and saying they did not trust leadership to “place employee safety above their own interests.”

Share:
More In Business
Klarna shares jump 30% on Wall Street debut
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Musk loses crown as world’s richest to software giant Larry Ellison
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
Load More