Nearly a year ago, Activision Blizzard was hit by a barrage of sexual harassment and discrimination accusations after a lawsuit by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
After conducting its own internal investigation, Activision BLizzard’s Board of Directors claims they weren’t able to find solid evidence that backed up allegations in regards to harassment and discrimination.
In a new SEC filing on June 16th, Activision wrote to its shareholders:
“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. That work also has not unearthed any evidence, directly or indirectly, suggesting any attempt by any senior executive or employee to conceal information from the Board.”
The Activision Blizzard internal investigation was first announced back in November after the wave of accusations that suggested a “frat boy” culture was supported. Many of the allegations also stated that CEO Bobby Kotick knew many of the issues at the company while failing to do anything about it. In a statement by the committee, they were “confident in Bobby Kotick’s leadership, commitment and ability to achieve these goals.”
The committee has also claimed that they’ve worked “with the assistance of external advisors” to conduct their own objective research of previous incidents. Their review wasn’t limited to the workplace allegations, it included a complete review of Activision’s policies and procedures to identify areas for further improvements.
Despite them reporting no evidence was found, the SEC filing acknowledges that there were some instances of gender harassment and concluded that “those unfortunate circumstances do not support the conclusion that Activision senior leadership or the Board were aware of and tolerated gender harassment or that there was ever a systemic issue with harassment, discrimination or retaliation.”
While they face numerous accusations and attempt to solve them, they also urge shareholders to vote against an upcoming proposal to report its own effort for preventing abuse and harassment.
