Second Shareholder Sues Activision Blizzard Over Spin Off Deal

[Michael Epstein]

Second Shareholder Sues Activision Blizzard Over Spin Off Deal

A new lawsuit against Activision Blizzard suggests CEO Bobby Kotick and board chairman Brian Kelly aren't doing right by shareholders.

A new lawsuit from an Activision Blizzard shareholder is looking to block part of the deal allowing the publisher to spin off from parent company Vivendi, asserting that the company is acting against shareholders' interests, without their consent. Revealed by a recent July [http://investor.activision.com/secfiling.cfm?filingid=1104659-13-69337].

If the $8.2 billion deal goes through, Activision Blizzard will buy aproximately 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion. At the same time, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and board co-chairman Brian Kelly will also purchase a combined 172 million shares for $2.34 billion in cash.

Hayes' lawsuit asserts that Kotick and Kelly, acting as private investors, "usurped a corporate opportunity from the company" by purchasing the stock for themselves. The suit also targets Vivendi and Activision Blizzard's board of directors for approving the allegedly illegal sale. The lawsuit is seeking an injunction against Kotick/Kelly transaction, a rescission of the contract for the sale, and an order forcing the two to report how much they have "allegedly been unjustly enriched."

Source: Polygon [http://investor.activision.com/secfiling.cfm?filingid=1104659-13-69337]

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[Me55enger]

Can't tell if thats a ty... got edited out as I was posting. Meant to proofread before posting it, y'know.

I recall when this broke and it all seemed like sweetness & light.

Is that how you spell illegeal?

 

[Nilanius]

So let's review here. Since Activision took over and merged Blizzard with themselves and took over World of Warcraft, which shifted the story telling and their obvious change in behavior towards their players, they've been getting bad news after bad news:

- Cataclysm - Went down from 12 million subs to around 10 million or so over 2 years.
- Diablo III - They gave it away to annual pass folks, and though they sold many copies, the game is probably the most unpopular game amongst gamers on the market right now. People just hate it.
- Mists of Pandaria - Has so far gone from 10 million subscriptions to, by second quarter accounts, 7.7 million subscribers, and chances are that number will be lower when Q3 comes around. And all this lost in 1 year compared to Cataclysm's 2 years.
- Their head guys are doing some underhanded stockholder insider trading, which is resulting in 2 law suits to block their illegal activity
- They've lost 54% of their World of Warcraft revenue.

Blizzard, mainly the ones controlling Blizzard, have made very bad decisions that are costing the company players and income alike. And they are unapologetic about what they do. At this rate, they will be lucky to see 2015. They used to be a top brand people could trust. Now that they wear the Activision title, they have turned into a toxic company.

Shame really. But when a company shifts from caring about gamers and making quality games, to shunning gamers and putting out piss poor products, it's to be expected. RIP WoW and Old Blizzard.

 

[teebeeohh]

So let's review here. Since Activision took over and merged Blizzard with themselves and took over World of Warcraft, which shifted the story telling and their obvious change in behavior towards their players, they've been getting bad news after bad news:

- Cataclysm - Went down from 12 million subs to around 10 million or so over 2 years.
- Diablo III - They gave it away to annual pass folks, and though they sold many copies, the game is probably the most unpopular game amongst gamers on the market right now. People just hate it.
- Mists of Pandaria - Has so far gone from 10 million subscriptions to, by second quarter accounts, 7.7 million subscribers, and chances are that number will be lower when Q3 comes around. And all this lost in 1 year compared to Cataclysm's 2 years.
- Their head guys are doing some underhanded stockholder insider trading, which is resulting in 2 law suits to block their illegal activity
- They've lost 54% of their World of Warcraft revenue.

Blizzard, mainly the ones controlling Blizzard, have made very bad decisions that are costing the company players and income alike. And they are unapologetic about what they do. At this rate, they will be lucky to see 2015. They used to be a top brand people could trust. Now that they wear the Activision title, they have turned into a toxic company.

Shame really. But when a company shifts from caring about gamers and making quality games, to shunning gamers and putting out piss poor products, it's to be expected. RIP WoW and Old Blizzard.

they also keep hamstringing SCII as a competitive title by trying to have a finger all every pie and running the qualifiers of their biggest tournament against ti3

didn't everybody blizz would stop making as much money as they did at some point? most of the money came from wow and we know nothing will ever be as commercially successful as wow.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Shame really. But when a company shifts from caring about gamers and making quality games, to shunning gamers and putting out piss poor products, it's to be expected. RIP WoW and Old Blizzard.

Don't forget on the Activision side the fallout from their actions with Infinity Ward. The exact figure will never be known, but adding up the $500 million in bonuses and salary they were contractually obliged to pay, plus legal fees, plus other damages to EA, West, Zampella and 40+ other ex IW/Activision staff members that resulted from undisclosed goings on and the two year legal stalling game Activision played, it's not inconceivable that Activision ended up on the hook for a billion dollars there.

That's a lot of money to quietly lose behind the sofa, given that they folded the day before the thing went to court and it was looking up to that point that they were going to be utterly smashed as evidence of various underhand goings on came out.

I wonder what the secondary fallout from this was in their dealings with other companies such as Bungie, Microsoft and their internal dealings with contracted developers.

Can't say I blame anyone who sues Activision, Bobby Kotick is one shady character.