Even New York City Is Going After Bobby Kotick Now

It’s no longer just California that’s going after Activision and CEO Bobby Kotick. Now, the east coast is getting in on the action, too. According to a report on Axios, the New York City Employee’s Retirement System and pension funds for the city’s teachers, police, and firefighters has filed suit in Delaware's Court of Chancery demanding that the company provide a list of documents, including the ones associated with the potential Microsoft buyout and the other five possible buyers mentioned in Activision’s account of talks.

The complaint asserts that Kotick wasn’t the appropriate person to be involved in these negotiations, due to his “personal responsibility and liability for Activision’s broken workplace”. New York believes that Kotick and the other directors plan to use the Microsoft deal as a way to “escape liability for their egregious breaches of fiduciary duty”. They also assert that the $95 per share purchase price undervalues the company.

This latest suit just adds to a long list of actions being taken against the game developer and its CEO – eight of which are lawsuits over the potential merger. However, four of those were voluntarily dismissed. Other actions include an SEC investigation into insider trading and two shareholder lawsuits.

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about such actions within his company – and performed some himself – and shielded the perpetrators from consequences.