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Bobby Kotick's post-Microsoft acquisition employment status reportedly hasn't been discussed

Despite constant calls to resign, Kotick's employment status post-acquisition remains up in the air.

Judging from a new line added to Activision Blizzard's main filing about its sale to Microsoft, CEO Bobby Kotick's employment status post-merger has not been discussed.

As spotted by Axios' Stephen Totilo (thanks, VGC), whether Kotick will stay on as CEO at Activision Blizzard still seems to be up in the air. The line added to the company's 8-K filing claims that no discussions took place regarding Kotick's employment arrangements before the negotiations of the merger took place.

"No discussions or negotiations regarding post-closing employment arrangements with Microsoft occurred between Microsoft and Mr Kotick prior to the approval and the execution of the merger agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby, or have occurred subsequent to such approval and execution, through the date hereof," reads the line.

Whether Kotick would stay on or not at Activision Blizzard as CEO has been a topic of great contention over the last year. At one point he reportedly considered stepping down from his position if the allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, and wider cultural issues in the studio couldn't be "quickly fixed." A report also came out claiming that Kotick was aware of all the allegations against the company for years. This all stems from the two-year long investigation by the state of California that emerged last year that brought all of these allegations to light.

Activision Blizzard has generally struggled to position itself in a positive light over the last year, due to doing things like allegedly holding back damning numbers about workplace misconduct.

And in March, the company was hit with another lawsuit alleging discrimination and harassment, generally building a picture that Kotick might not be entirely suited to his position as CEO. The merger with Microsoft is likely to take some time, so it's unlikely we'll know anytime soon whether Kotick will stay on or not.

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Oisin Kuhnke avatar

Oisin Kuhnke

Contributor

Oisin is a non-binary writer based in the UK with bylines in Polygon, Fanbyte, Uppercut, Rock Paper Shotgun, GameSpot, and many more besides.
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