Originally published at: WSJ: Activision CEO Bobby Kotick knew about sexual assault allegations and told an employee he would have her killed | Boing Boing
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He sounds nice.
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I sense shareholder lawsuits incoming. He may avoid the law, but sharholders angry about losing money, those are hard to get rid of, even if you threaten to kill them.
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Golden parachute? Perhaps it’s more palladium or gold pressed latinum or unobtainium.
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I would like to think that sexual misconduct would be considered “termination for cause” in which case the middle column for severance compensation would prevail.
But that’s probably naïve of me.
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A perfect fit for the AAA games industry.
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Sure, he wins, but 2 years of his salary seems worth cutting ties now. Holding on to him isn’t going to help your reputation and I’m not sure how effective he can be now. It’s weird that actors and other public figures seem to have “moral clauses” in their contracts. How is that not a standard thing for the public face of your company?
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What if there was an independent investigation into WSJ’s allegations? If he was found to have provided assistance in the cover-up, would criminal charges void his contract?
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How is that not a standard thing for the public face of your company?
look who’s writing the rules: other white men from the notorious frat boy culture of wall street. nobody is going to write a rule that affects their own pocketbook
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This kinds of sums up a fundamental wrong in American corporations. There is no way this one person is worth $154 million dollars a year - nobody should make that much money annually. But then to actually have a clause that makes it financially infeasible to dump his rich ass, there’s no benefit to the company having signed such a lopsided arrangement. Corporate boards are hopelessly corrupt and negligent in their fiduciary duties.
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Three words: Civil. Asset. Forfeiture.
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It’s not clear that they even want to. Per this article the board just put out their own statement expressing their support of this guy.
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So what you’re saying is “their hiring”. /s
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Certainly my read, too. I mean, there’d be a big ass lawsuit about whether it constitutes cause and probably settle, but he ought to get just that.
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I saw something about Activision/Blizzard workers walking out in protest, demanding his replacement, and I didn’t read the story, thinking, “Can’t be any worse than what I already know about what’s gone on there.” Boy was I wrong. The stories just keep getting exponentially worse.
Yeah, it’s beyond absurd. That kind of money could fully fund multiple AAA games, which could potentially bring in billions of dollars. Does he bring that much value to the company? Is he worth orders of magnitude more than the collective salaries of the hundreds of developers who make those games and do bring in billions? Obviously not.
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This makes it sound like you think the AAA games industry deserves having this sort of asshole behind the wheel, a stance I’ll wholeheartedly disagree with. The AAA games industry and the people working in it don’t deserve this shit and it’s a real bum deal that he’s gotten away with it for so long. Fuck Bobby Kotick.
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No, my point is that he’s a natural fit for a notoriously toxic, exploitative and abusive industry culture that can’t be explained away by “one bad apple”. It’s not about what people in the industry deserve, it’s the environment to which they’re given no alternatives.
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