Last updated: February 04, 2023, 9:42 AM IST
Activision has neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings and has agreed to a cease and desist order.
Activision Blizzard Pays $35 Million in Settlement for Violation of Workplace Complaints and Violation of Whistleblower Protection. And this has caused Activision shares to fall nearly 2% to $75.60 in Friday afternoon trading.
State regulators announced Friday that video game maker Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that it failed to enforce controls for collecting and reviewing workplace complaints related to disclosure requirements and violated a federal whistleblower protection rule.
In the absence of necessary controls, Activision “didn’t have the resources to determine if there were larger issues that needed to be disclosed to investors,” said Jason Burt, director of the SEC’s Denver office. “Furthermore, taking steps to prevent former employees from communicating directly with Commission staff about a possible violation of securities laws is not only bad corporate governance, it is also illegal.”
In paying the settlement, Activision neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings and agreed to a cease and desist order, the agency said.
Friday’s settlement comes after the troubled gambling company in Santa Monica, California, reached a 2021 settlement with U.S. workplace regulators over employee complaints of sexual harassment. Employees also subsequently accused the company of discriminating against employees who were pregnant and retaliating against employees who spoke out, including by firing them.
In that settlement, the maker of Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft agreed to establish an $18 million fund to compensate people who were harassed or discriminated against. The money that is left over goes to charities for women in the video game industry or other gender equality measures. Activision also agreed to strengthen its harassment and discrimination policy and training and to hire an independent consultant to oversee compliance with the terms of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
A month earlier, in August 2021, the company announced that its president, J. Allen Brack, would step down after the company was hit by a discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit in California. The California civil rights agency sued the Santa Monica-based company in July 2021, citing a “frat boy” culture that had become a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.”
Activision shares fell nearly 2% to $75.60 during Friday afternoon trading. Shares hovered near $100 in the weeks leading up to the spate of workplace misconduct allegations in the summer of 2021.
Just over a year ago, Microsoft said it paid a hefty $68.7 billion for Activision, but the deal is being held back by regulators in the US and Europe over anti-competitive concerns.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed)
