By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Activision Blizzard stock (NASDAQ:ATVI) traded nearly 3% higher in Monday’s premarket on a report in The Wall Street Journal that Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick has hinted at leaving the company if he can't quickly resolve issues surrounding allegations of sexual misconduct by senior staff.
Kotick, who has led the video games publisher for three decades, has faced criticism from employees, investors and other stakeholders for not doing enough to address the allegations for years. He is himself accused of mistreating women.
The company behind the 'Call of Duty' franchise and Candy Crush faces a lawsuit in California alleging discrimination against women. The stock has fallen around 30% since the July lawsuit was filed.
Last week, according to reports in Bloomberg and The WSJ, senior officials at Sony and Microsoft, Activision’s largest and fourth-largest customers respectively, wrote to their own staff to express their strong displeasure of the way Activision Blizzard had handled cases of sexual misconduct.
The allegations have led to the exit of at least 20 staff, according to a recent statement by Activision. The company has created an $18 million fund to compensate victims of inappropriate behavior, the statement said.