Activision Blizzard is Being Sued by a Shareholder Over the Microsoft Acquisition

A shareholder accuses Activision Blizzard of conflict of interests, claiming that the deal is not in the best interests of the company's stockholders.

Posted By | On 26th, Feb. 2022

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While last month’s news of Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard has been one that has taken everyone by surprise, the deal has raised a lot of questions around anti-trust, and not everyone has been happy about it.

As such, an Activision Blizzard shareholder, Kyle Watson, has filed a lawsuit against the company and its board of directors in California, over alleged Securities Exchange Act violations in their proposed plan for the Microsoft sale. The filed lawsuit questions a conflict of interests, mentioning that the deal is not in the best interest of Activision Blizzard, Watson, or the company’s stockholders, and only the officers and directors of the company will benefit from it.

Apart from that, in the filing, Watson’s lawyer accuses the company for violating the Exchange Act, as the February 18 SEC filing is allegedly misleading and incomplete, and is missing details about the committee that ran the sales process of the company.

Watson is requesting the court to order the company to release a new SEC preliminary statement, which will include more details without any misleading statements, and if the proposed transaction is successful, Watson is seeking damages. An Activision Blizzard spokesperson has commented on the lawsuit to Polygon, saying that the company disagrees with the allegations made in lawsuit, and is looking forward to providing their own arguments in court.


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