Hey, fuck Bobby Kotick

I won't exhaust my patience rehashing all of this, but one of the worst CEOs to ever grace a company whining about unions and a bizarre conspiracy theory instead of taking any responsibility for the business he ran is just another brick in the wall on shitty dudes being shitty.

In this week's Grit podcast, Kotick argues that the harassment claims and legal case against Activision Blizzard were, in fact, engineered by the Communication Workers of Union in a bid to attract new members.

"I can tell you exactly what happened," he says. "The Communication Workers of America Union started looking at technology. They kept losing because they represented the news guild, Comcast, and they realised they were losing members at a really dramatic rate, so they gotta figure out: how do they get new union members? So they targeted a bunch of different businesses. Google. Some other tech companies. Tesla, SpaceX and us."

The bullshit continues:

"I mean, think about it. I dated Sheryl Sandberg," he laughs. "You think we had a problem with pay equity and gender pay at Activision? She literally wouldn't do a 'lean in circle' at the company until I showed her our pay equity fillings."

If Kotick's suggestion here is that his association with ex-Meta COO Sandberg - who has advocated for equal representation in the workplace - is proof that the allegations against him are unfounded, it's perhaps worth noting that Sandberg herself is the subject of allegations that she worked with Kotick to shut down reports about his treatment of women. According to a 2022 report by the Wall Street Journal, Sandberg allegedly pressured UK tabloid The Daily Mail to drop stories about a restraining order against Kotick from an ex-girlfriend, while Kotick and Sandberg were dating.

"Working with a team that included Facebook and Activision employees as well as paid outside advisers," wrote the WSJ, "Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Kotick developed a strategy to persuade the Daily Mail not to report on the restraining order, first when they began dating in 2016 and again around the time they were breaking up in 2019, the people said. Among other concerns, Ms. Sandberg’s legal and public-relations advisers, both inside and outside Facebook, worried that a story would reflect negatively on her reputation as an advocate for women."

Fuck this guy.