According to information on the website Courthouse News Service, Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, submitted a lawsuit against two news sites on March 11. In reports from Gizmodo and Kotaku, he feels incorrectly presented. The articles are about his alleged interest in buying Tikkok. The articles, Kotick’s view, are incorrectly his role in the sexism scandal about Blizzard.
What do you know about the lawsuit? The “Courthouse News” website reported on March 13 that Bobby Kotick feels defamed by two news reports from March 2024 and sues the pages.
It is indirectly about the representation of his time as the head of Activision Blizzard, while in 2021 a California authority put accusations against the gaming company, there was sexual harassment and discrimination at the workplace.
The legal dispute was settled in December 2023. Activision Blizzard agreed on a payment of $ 54 million with the authority, but contained any kind of misconduct. From the perspective of Kotick, 4 months later, with a completely different topic, this should no longer have been reported on these accusations in the form.
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Bobby Kotick is maliciously presented incorrectly
That bothers Kottick: Kotick should be annoyed that in March 2024, i.e. after the arbitration, two articles on his alleged interest appeared to buy the Tikok platform. An article appeared on the Gizmodo page, one on Kotaku. At that time, both sides belonged to G/O Media – Gizmodo has now been sold.
Kotick is quoted with:
Neither of the two articles had anything to do with Activision. Both were about rumors that Kotick was interested in buying Tikkok. Nevertheless, Kotaku and Gizmodo have not spared any trouble to make back false claims in relation to problems in the workplace, of which g/o Media knew that they had been conclusively refuted by numerous studies … exclusively for the malicious purpose of causing further damage.
According to Kotick, both media took extra time to write false accusations against him in the articles that have already been refuted. This was done out of “pure malice” to harm Kotick.
As Kotaku reports, Media company asked Kotick to correct the articles and also change the headline, in which Kotick was referred to as “disgraced”, ie “unused”.
The articles were also adjusted, but Kotick is now complaining.
How were the articles adjusted? The Kotaku article says that the article was adjusted on April 1 to go into closer to the agreement and that Activision Blizzard denied that they had done anything wrong.
What does Kotick demand? He demands compensation that is determined by the court.
Hulk Hogan sued media group at the time
What does that remind of? In 2013, the professional wrestler Hulk Hogan (bourgeois Terry Gene Bollea), with the support of Peter Thiel, sued the media company Gawker, to which Kotaku also increased. He wanted $ 100 million and received $ 140 million.
Three months later, Gawker reported bankruptcy. After that, Gawker still had to pay $ 31 to Hulk Hogan.
The lawsuit was about a video that Hulk Hogan showed during sexual intercourse with the wife of a radio presenter. Hogan said in court that the video was recorded without his knowledge or approval. Kotick’s departure from the office as a boss at Activision Blizzard we worked on Meinmmo in December 2023: The boss Bobby Kotick leaves Blizzard – “Finally he is gone,” says the community