The latest internal review of Activision Blizzard has found no evidence of any neglect toward harassment claims… Because of course, it didn’t. This internal review that was recently released as an SEC Filing has also neglected to mention the mountain of evidence that contradicts this assessment. But details, right?
To quote the review document:
Contrary to many of the allegations, the board and its external advisors have determined that there is no evidence to suggest that Activision Blizzard senior executives ever intentionally ignored or attempted to downplay the instances of gender harassment that occurred and were reported.
The review of contemporaneous documentation and statements by relevant individuals shows that media criticism of the Board and Activision Blizzard senior executives as insensitive to workplace matters is without merit. Over the years the company has appropriately disciplined and exited employees to ensure that our practices match our policies.
The silver lining is that the report did admit that some form of harassment was going on around the workplace, saying that there were “some substantiated instances of gender harassment,” but said they were not evidence of systemic problems. Of course, the report also took the time to take a slight against entities such as the California DFEH by saying that the agency’s ongoing lawsuit has “highly inflammatory, made-for-press allegations.”
The report also neglected to mention the behavior of Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick who was found to overrule an HR department determination that a co-head of Treyarch be fired over an allegation of sexual harassment. Not to mention the fact that he was also long-aware of the harassment and discrimination that was running rampant across Activision Blizzard. Not to mention Kotick’s own skeletons with him threatening a flight attendant.
What’s next for Activision Blizzard as the Microsoft Acquisition still goes on? Will there be any repercussions for Bobby Kotick once his tenure is over? As always, we’ll continue to update this story as new developments appear.
