Yesterday, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick held an all-hands meeting to discuss Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of the company. He said Microsoft would retain as many employees as possible and he plans to remain CEO of Activision Blizzard until the deal closes.
Employees didn’t like the meeting, and Kotick was reluctant to address issues such as sexual harassment at the company, sources said.
According to media reports, the fireside chat was actually a video conference in which employees allegedly submitted questions (mainly about addressing sexual harassment incidents and other issues) via email, and Bobby Kotick would read them. The meeting was only 16 minutes long and he was late.
I can tell you that my commitment to the company is to remain CEO of the company, Kotick told employees. Once the deal closes, my commitment to Microsoft is that I will stay with Microsoft for as long as necessary to ensure that Well-integrated and transitioned.
Employees believe the news suggests Kotick may no longer be CEO once the acquisition is complete. However, it also means that he will likely remain at Activision Blizzard for at least another year. The developers had to endure working under Kotick.
Foreign media pointed out that the source also expressed concern about what Kotick said, saying that the transition will be smooth because (Microsoft) is committed to retaining as many employees as possible, which has raised concerns among employees about layoffs.
He said some superficial friendly things about how much he cares about the employees who make up the ABK alliance, the Kotaku source said. But if he really cares, he’ll address the issues people have raised.
Instead, he said Microsoft was interested in the Metaverse and joked that employees wouldn’t be rushed to move to Teams on Microsoft’s side. The source noted that none of the employees really cared about these things.
The source was similarly pessimistic about Kotick’s willingness to resolve the company’s problems:
He thinks Activision is as important as his kids, and that’s why we didn’t think he would give up the company. But he didn’t mention the strike, the lawsuit, or any problems with the company, he didn’t answer anything at all, we could have read the announcement for a minute, then sleep for another 15 minutes.
According to a source at Raven Software, Kotick was wasting employees’ time giving meaningless speeches, while the striking employees were pushing for the reinstatement of fired colleagues without pay.