During a shareholder meeting, the board at Activision Blizzard voted to reelect Bobby Kotick as CEO.
As detailed in the official filing for the annual meeting of stockholders, one of the proposals voted on was on which directors would be elected to serve another term, including Bobby Kotick in the role of CEO. Despite the controversies and ongoing litigation concerning workplace harassment centered around him, Kotick received over 533,000,000 votes in favor of reelection with less than 63,000,000 voting against him.
Activision Blizzard and Kotick have been under fire for numerous allegations regarding workplace harassment, with many shareholders and employees calling for his resignation. This news also comes just after an internal investigation by the company’s own board found “no evidence” of executives ignoring employee harassment.
This vote will allow Kotick to serve one more year as the company’s CEO unless he resigns or is removed, which may be possible once the buyout from Microsoft is finalized and CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer takes control.
Along with Kotick’s reelection, the board will also hold a vote on creating a report on their investigations of harassment in their company. However, even if shareholders do vote for such a report, Activision Blizzard is under no obligation to actually produce one.
After so many individuals have spoken out about the systemic issues within Activision Blizzard, many of which name Kotick and other high-ranking members of Activision Blizzard specifically, seeing Kotick getting reelected is a major blow for those who hoped to see the CEO held accountable for what reportedly transpired at the company under his leadership.
