Activision-Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ: ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick faces mounting pressures from investors and employees to resign amid the company's ongoing scandal.
Blizzard employees staged a walkout on Tuesday following a Wall Street Journal report exposing Kotick's knowledge of a 2016 incident at ATIV-owned Sledgehammer Games. According to the report, a female employee was sexually assaulted after being pressured into overconsumption of alcohol, with the company later settling the matter out of court. Kotick did not report the incident to the Board of Directors.
Blizzard's Tuesday was spent with 150 employees protesting just in front of its Irvine, California offices calling for Kotick's resignation. On Wednesday, the Activision-Blizzard board received a letter co-signed by several major investors calling for the same.
"Despite numerous government investigations, settlements, and top executives' departures that have negatively affected both the company's public reputation and its share price, the board has been almost entirely silent," Investors wrote. "We, therefore, call on Mr. Kotick to resign as CEO of the company and on the board of directors to take responsibility for failing to recognize and address what the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has described as a "frat boy" workplace culture to flourish."
Kotick's central role in ATVI's ongoing scandal makes him an increasing liability to the company. The WSJ's report comes months after the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) began probing Kotick and members of ATIV's c-suite to determine how much, if anything, they knew of the company's troubling workplace culture. Given September's subpoena, the SEC may likely have already parsed the emails mentioned in the WSJ's report.
From recent allegations to the mass exodus of 'World of Warcraft' players, Activision-Blizzard shares have taken a heck of a beating. Shares slipped 6.3% on Tuesday, losing an additional 2.9% on Wednesday. Thursday is already looking like much of the same, with another 3.9% lost by noon.