Activision Blizzard: 3 businessmen close to Bobby Kotick indicted for insider trading
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Laerezh
Three businessmen with a more or less strong link with Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, have recently been indicted for insider trading. The American Justice suspects the 3 men of having illegally bought many shares of ABK shortly before its takeover by Microsoft.
In an article published this Wednesday, March 9, 2022, GamesIndustry.biz reports some of the most amazing news according to an article reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal: Three businessmen close to Robert “Bobby” Kotick have reportedly been indicted for adding large amounts of Activision Blizzard stock shortly before the company’s takeover. company by Microsoft.
Bobby Kotick’s shadow still hangs over Activision Blizzard
The news fell recently: three relatives of Bobby Kotick would have bought 4.12 million shares of Activision Blizzard for a total amounting to 108 million dollars, all just four days before the official announcement of the takeover of company by Microsoft on January 18.
The three businessmen are more or less related to the current CEO of Activision Blizzard since they have all worked at some point in their careers with him. It is :
- Barry Diller, the founder of the Fox Broadcasting Company but also one of the members of the Board of Directors of Coca-Cola alongside Robert Kotick before the latter left office quite recently,
- David Geffen, a producer best known for founding the Asylum Records label, he is one of Barry Diller’s close friends.
- Alexander von Fürstenberg, little known but son of Diane von Fürstenberg, a famous Belgian fashion designer but also the wife of Barry Diller. Alexander von Fürstenberg is therefore by definition the son-in-law of Barry Diller.
The three men have been investigated not only by the US Department of Justice but also by the Securities and Exchange Commission to determine whether or not any of the transactions violated insider trading laws. Concretely, justice seeks to know if Robert Kotick provided information deemed sensitive to these three men so that they derive an advantage in obtaining a large number of shares from Activision Blizzard.
Barry Diller is said to have already spoken to the Wall Street Journal, saying it was “just a fluke” before adding that the three businessmen would have “acted without the slightest information from whoever whatever” and that these are “mere coincidences” Diller also pointed out that his son-in-law, Alexander von Fürstenberg, has already bought shares in Activision and that their goal is “for Activision to become either private , or that it is acquired at a given time”.