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Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 8, 2022, in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Video game developer Activision Blizzard agreed to pay a $35 million settlement over charges it failed to maintain “adequate” workplace harassment reporting procedures and that it violated federal whistleblower protection rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday.
The SEC claimed workplace misconduct complaints were neither collected nor analyzed employee complaints as expected by public disclosure regulations. “Moreover, taking action to impede former employees from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation is not only bad corporate governance, it is illegal,” SEC director Jason Burt said.
The settlement is not an admission or denial of wrongdoing but concludes a probe that focused on Activision Blizzard’s standards from 2018 to 2021.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was aware of reports of alleged sexual misconduct at the company, including alleged rape, the Journal reported in 2021.
“Mr. Kotick would not have been informed of every report of misconduct at every Activision Blizzard company, nor would he reasonably be expected to have been updated on all personnel issues,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said at the time.
The SEC filing claimed Activision Blizzard required “a...
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