{"id":1192262,"date":"2023-10-13T17:49:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T21:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1192262"},"modified":"2023-10-13T17:49:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T21:49:47","slug":"ceo-bobby-kotick-will-leave-activision-blizzard-on-january-1-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1192262","title":{"rendered":"CEO Bobby Kotick will leave Activision Blizzard on January 1, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"rss-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1259162962-800x533-1.jpg\" alt=\"Bobby Kotick, in suit, approaching a courthouse, looking at the camera.\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1259162962-scaled.jpg\" class=\"enlarge-link\" data-height=\"1707\" data-width=\"2560\">Enlarge<\/a> <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, in June, arriving to court in San Francisco to testify in the Federal Trade Commission&#8217;s suit to stop Microsoft&#8217;s acquisition of the company Kotick has led for 33 years. (credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div><a name=\"page-1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, emailed employees after news of <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2023\/10\/microsoft-finally-owns-candy-crush-as-it-closes-69b-activision-blizzard-deal\/\">Microsoft&#8217;s successful $69 billion acquisition<\/a> to say that he was &#8220;fully committed to helping with the transition&#8221; and that he would stay on as CEO through the end of 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Kotick&#8217;s statement left some ambiguity about his plans for 2024, but Bloomberg&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jasonschreier\/status\/1712818483442987422\">Jason Schreier reports<\/a> that on January 1, Kotick will depart. It&#8217;s &#8220;a massive change for the video game industry,&#8221; Schreier writes, which seems almost restrained, given Kotick&#8217;s longevity and recent history. Several employees <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jasonschreier\/status\/1712788620220784649\">Schreier spoke to<\/a> are &#8220;very excited for this deal to go through,&#8221; specifically to see <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jasonschreier\/status\/1712790666453885373\">leadership change<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kotick, who has led Activision for more than 30 years and orchestrated its merger with Blizzard, had considered stepping down in late 2021. Following <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2021\/07\/ca-state-agency-sues-activision-blizzard-alleges-discrimination-against-women\/\">a lawsuit from the state of California<\/a> alleging a &#8220;frat boy culture&#8221; rife with pay disparity and sexual harassment, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/activision-videogames-bobby-kotick-sexual-misconduct-allegations-11637075680\">a Wall Street Journal report<\/a> alleged that Kotick failed to act on hundreds of abuse allegations within the company and also kept the company&#8217;s board of directors in the dark. Activision was also <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2021\/08\/shareholders-sue-activision-blizzard-for-withholding-harassment-info\/\">sued by its shareholders<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2021\/12\/state-treasurers-join-chorus-looking-for-change-at-activision-blizzard\/\">pressured by state treasurers<\/a> over its secrecy and responses regarding the California lawsuit. All of this led to an <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2021\/11\/after-bombshell-report-activision-employees-walk-out-demand-ceo-resign\/\">employee walkout and calls for Kotick&#8217;s resignation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1976154#p3\">Read 3 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1976154&amp;comments=1\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Ars Technica &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1976154\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CEO Bobby Kotick will leave Activision Blizzard on January 1, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enlarge \/ Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, in June, arriving to court in San Francisco to testify in the Federal Trade Commission&#8217;s suit to stop Microsoft&#8217;s acquisition of the company Kotick has led for 33 years. (credit: Getty Images) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1192262\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1192263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1192262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1192262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1192263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1192262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1192262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1192262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}