SOC, an investment group and shareholder of Activision Blizzard, has criticised the company's response to facing a recent high-profile lawsuit and widespread allegations fo a toxic work culture – and made demands for it to change.
As reported by Axios, SOC executive director Dieter Waizeneggar called the management response to Activision Blizzard's reported toxic work culture problems "inadequate", and called on the company to do more to tackle the issues it's facing.
In a letter (published on Twitter by Axios' Megan Farokhmanesh), Waizeneggar said that the updated statement from CEO Bobby Kotick included "improved tone and increased detail", but did not "go nearly far enough to address the deep and widespread issues with equity, inclusion, and human capital management."
The letter calls on Activision Blizzard to add a woman director to the board by the end of 2021, commit to generder balance on the board by 2025, claw back bonuses from executives found to have enabled abusive behaviour, cancel executive bonuses for 2021, award bonuses based on achieving diversity goals in future, and conduct a company-wide Equity Review.
SOC also agrees with the ABK Workers Alliance in rejecting Activision Blizzard's choice to institute law firm WilmerHale as an auditor. Waizeneggar writes, "this firm has a sterling reputation as a defender of the wealthy and connected, but it has no track record of uncovering wrongdoing, the lead investigator does not have in-depth experience investigating workplace harassment and abuse, and the scope of the investigation fails to address the full range of equity issues Mr. Kotick acknowledges."
SOC is an investment group built to hold "corporations and their leadership accountable for irresponsible and unethical corporate behavior and excessive executive pay, reflecting the long-term interests of workers and their families invested in union pension funds." It has also recently lobbied shareholders against the board at EA.
It remains to be seen what meaningful changes will be made at Activision after the lawsuit, which has led to a walkout, the CEO calling an initial response "tone deaf", and the departure of Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. We also reported on the feelings from inside the company during Activision Blizzard's first week of reckoning.