A Letter From CEO Bobby Kotick to All Employees | Business

SANTA MONICA, Calif .– (BUSINESS WIRE) – Jan. July 2021–

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) CEO Bobby Kotick today sent the following letter to all employees.

July 27, 2021

This has been a difficult and troubling week.

I would like to acknowledge and thank all those who have contacted us in the past and in the last few days. I really appreciate your courage. Every voice counts – and we will listen better now and in the future.

Our initial responses to the problems we share together and your concerns were, frankly, deaf.

It is imperative that we acknowledge all perspectives and experiences and respect the feelings of those who have been abused in any way. I’m sorry we didn’t impart the right empathy and understanding.

Many of you have told us that active contact cultivation results from such intensive care for the company. The fact that so many people turned to share thoughts, suggestions and opportunities for improvement is an impressive reflection of how much you care for our communities of colleagues and players – and for each other. Ensuring a safe and welcoming work environment is my top priority. The management team heard you loud and clear.

We’re taking quick action to be the compassionate, caring company you came for, ensuring a safe environment. There is no place in our company for discrimination, harassment or unequal treatment of any kind.

We will do everything we can to ensure that together we improve and build an inclusive workplace that is essential for fostering creativity and inspiration.

I have asked the WilmerHale law firm to conduct a review of our policies and procedures to ensure that we have and maintain best practices for promoting a respectful and inclusive workplace. This work will begin immediately. The WilmerHale team is led by Stephanie Avakian, who is a member of the WilmerHale management team and most recently was director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement department.

We recommend anyone who has an experience that you believe violates our policies or feels in any way uncomfortable at work to use one of our many existing reporting channels or to contact Stephanie. You and your WilmerHale team are available for confidential discussions and can be reached at ATVI@wilmerhale.com or 202-247-2725. Your contact will be treated confidentially. Of course, retaliation will NOT be tolerated.

We are committed to sustainable change. From now on we will take the following measures:

1. Support the employees. We will continue to investigate every single claim and will not hesitate to take decisive action. In order to strengthen our skills in this area, we are expanding both the compliance team and the employee relations team to include additional managers and other resources.
2. Listening sessions. We know many of you have ideas for improving our culture. We will create safe rooms that are moderated by third parties so that you can express yourself and share potential for improvement.
3. Personnel changes. We immediately evaluate managers and executives across the company. Anyone found to have compromised the integrity of our claims assessment and appropriate consequences processes will be discontinued.
4. Hiring Practices. Earlier this year I sent an email asking all hiring managers to make sure they had different lists of candidates for each open position. We’ll be adding compliance resources to make sure our hiring managers actually adhere to this policy.
5. Changes in the game. We have heard from staff and player communities that some of our in-game content is inappropriate. We are removing this content.

Your well-being remains my priority and I will not spare any company resources to ensure that our company has the most welcoming, comfortable and safe company culture possible.

You have my unwavering commitment that together we will improve our business and be the most inspiring, inclusive entertainment company in the world.

Your,

Bobby

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases we may use terms such as “predicted”, “believes”, “potential”, “proposed”, “continue”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “expect”, “plan”, “intend”, “might” , “Could,” “could,” “will,” “should” or other words express uncertainty about future events or results used to identify these forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the company’s current expectations. These and other risks are described in the company’s periodic reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and its most recent reports on Form 8-K, filed with or with the Securities and Exchange Commission submitted to her and available at www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements made by the company in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise after the date of this press release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210727006194/en/

CONTACT: Investors and analysts:

ir@activisionblizzard.com

or

Press:

pr@activisionblizzard.com

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ELECTRONIC GAMES TECHNOLOGY HUMAN RESOURCES ENTERTAINMENT ONLINE MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SOFTWARE GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT

SOURCE: Activision Blizzard, Inc.

Copyright Business Wire 2021.

PUB: 07/27/2021 8:45 p.m. / DISC: 07/27/2021 8:47 p.m.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210727006194/en

Copyright Business Wire 2021.