Ex-Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick has described the legal action taken by multiple government agencies over alleged harrassment at his former company as “fake lawsuits”, which he says were deliberately planned by a union in a bid to increase its membership.
Kotick made the claim during a wide-ranging interview on the Grit podcast, in which he also said a petition signed by around 1300 Activision Blizzard employees calling for his removal as CEO was also “fake” – without providing more detail on which part of the document was apparently false.
Activision Blizzard was rocked back in 2001 by claims that the company had fostered a “frat boy” culture, with allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. With multiple lawsuits pending, criticism centred on Kotick’s handling of the matter, particularly after a damning Wall St Journal report raised questions about how much the CEO had known about historical allegations.
When asked about the matter, and specifically the petition signed by Activision Blizzard staff asking Kotick to step down, the former CEO responded: “That was fake.”
“I can tell you exactly what happened,” Kotick continued. “The Communication Workers of America [CWA] union started looking at technology. They kept losing because they represented the News Guild, Comcast, and they realised they were losing members at a really dramatic rate, so they gotta figure out: how do they get new union members? So they first targeted a bunch of different businesses – Google, some other tech companies, Tesla and SpaceX, and us.”