Activision Blizzard alleges that Activision violated a California state law that required the company’s board of directors to have at least three women by the end of 2021 due to the difficulties in getting acquired by Microsoft. California passed legislation in 2019 requiring at least three women on boards of directors by the end of 2021, but Activision Blizzard was unable to meet that deadline. Since the current directors will no longer hold their positions on the board of directors after the completion of the upcoming Microsoft acquisition, Activision Blizzard will not be able to comply with the law.
According to Activision-Blizzard’s 2021 Annual Report filed in late February, Activision-Blizzard is not complying with California’s board job diversity law. In Activision Blizzard’s latest annual report, Activision Blizzard admits it failed to meet the deadline with only two women on its board of directors out of ten out of three requests. Activision is not hiring enough women to serve on its board of directors, thus violating California law.
Activision Blizzard was hit by a lawsuit last year which shook the whole gaming industry. The lawsuit alleges that Activision Blizzard’s management allowed and sometimes encouraged sexual misconduct against female employees and that the company’s hiring and employment practices were discriminatory towards women. One lawsuit alleges that Blizzard President J. Allen Brack was aware of Blizzard’s toxic culture. On August 3, two weeks after the DFEH filed the lawsuit, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack resigned. That said, Activision had two years to hire a third woman on its board, and during that time Activision has avoided the process.
Microsoft promised that the Microsoft merger would allow Microsoft to make “gaming safe, inclusive, and accessible to everyone” following multiple workplace harassment and discrimination lawsuits against Activision Blizzard. According to an email seen by Bloomberg, Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, said that Xbox is “evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and is making positive adjustments” and that Xbox leaders “have no interest in “Shocked and deeply disturbed by Activision Blizzard’s appalling events and conduct, Bobby Kotick, who has faced severe allegations over the past year and has called for his resignation over sexual harassment and cultural issues leading Activision, will Staying in his place to answer Xbox boss Phil Spencer. Activision Blizzard’s plan is to increase the hiring of female and nonbinary employees by 50 percent over the next decade, said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, and will report annual salary comparisons by employee demographics.
