A “boys’ club” corporate culture will work. Activision Blizzard quite expensive. The company that makes Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch or Diablo will pay to settle a lawsuit alleging discrimination and harassment of women US$54 million(converted to more than 1.2 billion crowns), reports the New York Times.
This is a lawsuit filed by the California Civil Rights Division (CCRD) in 2021. CCRD alleged that Activision Blizzard management deliberately ignored employee complaints of unequal pay, harassment and discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation.
Activision Blizzard has now committed to taking steps to ensure fairer pay and promotions within the company. However, the company previously claimed that an internal investigation conducted by its board of directors concluded that the allegations were unfounded.
Instead, CCRD is amending the lawsuit to publicly state that neither a court nor an independent investigation has proven any allegations of systematic or pervasive sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard is now part of Microsoft. The historic $68.7 billion acquisition closed in October of this year. It was this crisis that prompted Microsoft to buy this major publisher. In November, it was announced that the controversial Bobby Kotick would step down as CEO of Activision Blizzard and would leave the company at the end of 2023.
It was Kotik who was accused of supporting or ignoring numerous cases of harassment and toxic behavior on the part of some heads of Activision Blizzard studios. He has been called regularly since October 2021. But he won’t just leave, because he will receive a bonus of $375 million for closing the deal. It is reported that he will receive at least an additional $265 million for early completion. Unless he has agreed otherwise with Microsoft.
Source :Indian TV
