CEO of Activision Blizzard announces a series of internal changes

Activision Blizzard, Inc., previously known as Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a US video game company that has Activision (Creator of the Call of Duty Saga, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk and Skylanders among others) and Blizzard Entertainment (Developers by World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Overwatch among others). Since its fusion in 2008 and subsequent purchase by Tencent Holdings, Activision Blizzard has become the most important Third-Party for the United States and globally, achieving a market capitalization of 49 billion dollars.

Things within Activision Blizzard They remain very tense among all demands, harassment and discrimination reports, and more. The good news is that at least the company s CEO, Bobby Kotick, is taking things seriously and, in addition to giving up its annual bonus for carrying out this position, also announced a series of guidelines that seek Make the company a better place to work.

To begin with, Kotick acknowledged that the company and its expansion process have not been handled in the best possible way, at least during the last years:

In some cases, people did not feel comfortable when reporting their concerns periodically, or their concerns were not always addressed in a timely or adequate manner. The people were deeply disappointed and, that s why I express my apologies.

Likewise, Kotick states that all the investigations that have been carried out by external agencies have helped to know which areas of the company should improve, and as a result, he announced five things that will seek to improve in Activision Blizzard :

• New policy against harassment, as well as zero tolerance within the entire company: There will be immediate dismissals in case the involved perform some act inappropriate or improper in the labor area. The disciplinary regime will be strengthened and there will be constant supervision.

• Greater Labor Diversity: Kotick seeks to increase the number of women and non-binary people within the company by approximately 50%. On the other hand, Activision Blizzard will make an investment of 250 million dollars to encourage opportunities in games and technology for minority communities.

• Renunciation of arbitration of sexual harassment and discrimination investigations: For any employee who chooses not to arbitrate an individual claim for sexual harassment or discrimination, Activision Blizzard will resign any obligation to do so.

• Greater transparency in terms of salary equity: Activision Blizzard seeks to be more transparent about salaries within the company, especially when it is suspected that there may be water inequality between men and women.

• Best and constant communication: Activision Blizzard states that they will constantly review all these new policies to create a better work environment for all. Following this, they will be more communicative with both the general public, as with their shareholders.

Finally, and as I told you at the beginning of the note, Kotick will no longer receive a multimillion-dollar annual bonus as had happened in previous years. Now, the executive will receive the minimum stipulated by the law for the position of him, that is, $ 62,500 dollars.

Editor s Note: Obviously it is good news to know that the CEO of the company is taking things seriously, but from an external perspective, it is really difficult to know if this series of changes will really be respected or if they were not More than empty promises to relieve media pressure.

Via: Yahoo Finance