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Activision Asks Court To Dismiss State Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Lawsuit
Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
Activision Blizzard asked Los Angeles Superior Court to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed against it by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, arguing the agency overstepped its authority by taking the matter to court.
The DFEH’s lawsuit against Activision, filed in July 2021, accuses the Santa Monica-based publisher of “Overwatch” and the blockbuster “Call of Duty” franchise of fostering a “frat boy” culture in the workplace. The suit alleges that Activision permitted frequent drinking during office hours and looked the other way regarding sexual harassment of female employees.
This lawsuit is one of a growing number that pile up around Activision as it tries to finalize its $69 billion merger with Microsoft. The gaming firm’s tactic is to now frame the DFEH’s lawsuit as frivolous and the result of it meddling in the affairs of another government watchdog, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The EEOC filed its own discrimination lawsuit against Activision in September 2021, though it said it began investigating in 2018.
The EEOC’s lawsuit found that Activision Blizzard managers discriminated against and sexually harassed employees who were female or pregnant, and that the company knowingly failed to address the issue. It’s similar to several cases brought by private plaintiffs, including a current employee and the family of Kerri Moynihan, a woman who died by suicide at an Activision company outing in 2017.
“We are moving to dismiss the DFEH’s Complaint because the agency violated its own rules, acted in bad faith, and undermined its authority to file this lawsuit,” Activision said in a statement Wednesday. “Our motion comes just days after we joined the EEOC in opposing the sixth attempt by the DFEH to disrupt the federal settlement reached with the EEOC that already is helping Activision build a better and more inclusive workplace and providing relief and closure to current and former employees.”
The DFEH didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
In a May 6 filing in Los Angeles Superior Court first viewed by VentureBeat, Activision claimed there was “unprecedented inter-agency friction and government misconduct” afoot beginning in 2018 when the DFEH and EEOC began “overlapping” investigations into the same case.
There’s no reason separate federal and state entities can’t both make cases against Activision, but Activison’s filing claims the DFEH violated ethics by poaching EEOC attorneys and assigning them to their own case against the gaming company, waging a media offensive to try and prevent the case being settled, citing DFEH director Kevin Kish’s statements to the Washington Post where he said, “the most common response to harassment is nothing,” and argued the DFEH had to “take a look at this.”
The EEOC’s case was settled in March of this year. The settlement requires Activision to create an $18 million fund to pay out victims of sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination or sex-based retaliation who’ve been working at the company from September 2016 onward.
But not everyone felt that the $18 million settlement was just, including victims. The DFEH tried to block it, arguing that Activision could stand to pay far more – especially given that it brought in roughly $395 million in profits last quarter. That was down 36% from the year prior, but still, Activision could afford a heftier payout if it had to.
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Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la
🔦 Spotlight
Happy Friday, Los Angeles.
Next week, hundreds of tech events will take over the city, bringing founders, investors, engineers and creators together from October 12 through 18.
Calling LA Tech Week a conference does not quite capture the experience.
Presented by Andreessen Horowitz, Tech Week is a decentralized collection of panels, workshops, demonstrations and gatherings hosted independently by startups, venture firms and technology companies. There is no convention center or central stage. The programming stretches from Santa Monica and Venice to Culver City, Downtown, El Segundo and beyond.
In other words, the city is the venue.
AI remains the dominant theme for 2026, appearing across enterprise software, healthcare, finance, media and the creator economy. The schedule also reflects industries where Los Angeles has built a particular advantage, including aerospace, defense, robotics, advanced manufacturing, entertainment and consumer technology.
That range is what makes LA Tech Week distinct. It brings together the software companies shaping what comes next with the industries that already define Southern California.
The challenge is deciding where to show up.
Our advice: apply early and organize your schedule by neighborhood. Crossing from Santa Monica to Downtown may look manageable on a calendar created by someone who has never driven in Los Angeles.
To help you spend more time meeting people and less time crossing the city, we have organized each day’s events by location:
You can also browse the complete official LA Tech Week calendar.
Plan carefully, but do not fill every minute. The best conversation of the week may be the one that was never on your calendar.
More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- El Segundo-based Gallatin AI raised a $50M Series A from new and existing investors including 8VC and Silent Ventures, bringing its total funding to $70M. The defense technology startup will expand its engineering team and advance Navigator, an AI platform that helps U.S. military units coordinate vehicle readiness, supplies, medical logistics and other mission-support operations. - learn more
- Pasadena-based quantum computing startup Oratomic raised a $475M Series B at a $5.4B valuation, just three months after its Series A. ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst and Bezos Expeditions co-led the round, bringing Oratomic’s total funding to $775M as it works toward a commercially viable, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2030. - learn more
- Torrance-based Fortastra raised a $30M Series A led by First In, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Space Capital, Rsquared, Side Door Ventures, ATX Ventures and existing investors. The company will use the capital to develop its next-generation maneuverable spacecraft, expand its engineering and operations teams and scale production of systems designed to protect critical assets in orbit. - learn more
- Parallel Systems raised a $100M Series C led by AVP, with participation from Hillspire, Agility Global, Cobalt Capital, Anthos Capital, Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures and Collaborative Fund. Founded by former SpaceX engineers, the company will use the funding to scale production and commercial deployment of its autonomous, battery-electric Panther rail vehicles, which are designed to make short-haul freight more competitive with trucking. - learn more
- Gaming studio Gardens Interactive secured more than $35M in a Series B led by Lightspeed, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Accel, Innovation Endeavors, Zenith Capital and other investors. The company will use the funding to launch and operate its debut social role-playing “strandbox” game, an evolving multiplayer world shaped by players’ actions and interactions. - learn more
- Outer Spaces raised an $8M pre-seed round led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Unlock Venture Partners, Mucker Capital and Genius Ventures. The startup is developing outdoor furnishings with integrated solar panels and batteries, turning backyards into sources of clean energy and backup power. - learn more
- Furientis raised a $25M seed round led by Benchmark at a reported $125M valuation, following a $5M pre-seed announced in May. The defense startup will use the capital to scale production of lower-cost missile interceptors designed to be assembled quickly with readily available components, with a long-term goal of producing 1,000 systems annually at each factory. - learn more
- Hiyo raised a $20.8M Series B led by Constellation Brands, with returning investor Live Nation also participating. The nonalcoholic beverage company will use the funding to expand its adaptogen- and nootropic-infused social tonics across more than 13,000 retail locations while growing its presence at hospitality venues and live events. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Navitas Capital participated in Vesta’s $30M Series B, which was led by Conversion Capital and included backing from several major mortgage lenders and financial institutions. The company will use the funding to scale its AI agents across mortgage origination, automating tasks such as application reviews, underwriting decisions and closing-document checks. - learn more
- MTech Capital led Nettle’s oversubscribed $4.8M seed round, with participation from Project A Ventures, Sure Valley Ventures, Portfolio Ventures and Ventures Together. The insurtech startup will use the funding to expand across the U.S. and Europe while growing its AI platform, which helps commercial insurers identify property risks, accelerate inspections and generate reports. - learn more
- Bonfire Ventures doubled down on Santé by participating in the company’s $15M Series A, which was led by FINTOP and included other returning investors. The New York startup will use the funding to expand its AI-powered operating system for independent wine and liquor stores, which combines point-of-sale, e-commerce, payments, inventory and marketing tools in one platform. - learn more
LA Exits
- Winnow Solutions was acquired by Marina del Rey-based Spring Labs, with financial terms undisclosed. Winnow’s attorney-built library of more than 100,000 state and federal regulatory requirements will become a core part of SpringGRC, helping financial institutions connect changing laws directly to their compliance policies, controls and workflows. - learn more
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LA Tech Week 2026: Saturday’s Event Lineup
04:43 PM | October 08, 2026
🔦 Spotlight
LA Tech Week 2026 heads into the weekend Saturday with more opportunities to learn, meet fellow builders and explore what is being created across the region. Browse the day’s events by neighborhood below and find the gatherings worth leaving the house for.
ARTS DISTRICT
5:30 PM
- [WARDROBE DEBUG]: See Details Here
Soullink AI
CULVER CITY
10:00 AM
- Live Models TBD: See Details Here
Visko Platform, Reactor
1:00 PM
- Wafer, Print, & the Entertainment Business: See Details Here
Tallaris Partners
4:00 PM
- Build a voice agent in 3 minutes: See Details Here
Guava
- Tech Week Close Out Party: See Details Here
CarClub
DOWNTOWN
11:00 AM
- TradingDayEvent: See Details Here
silwal.io
2:00 PM
- [DFA Designathon]: See Details Here
Design For America + USC
- South Asians in Space, Physical AI: See Details Here
american south asian network
5:00 PM
- Speak Easy: Pitch Lab Happy Hour: See Details Here
Speech & Mind
7:00 PM
- Tea Tech and Tequila: See Details Here
SFWRUNWAY
LONG BEACH
10:00 AM
- Cars & Coffee: See Details Here
Grid, Vacant.com
12:00 PM
- Tech Beach Party @ Long Beach: See Details Here
Tech by the Beach
LOS FELIZ
8:30 AM
- Griffith Observatory Hike with Longevity Cities & Don't Die LA: See Details Here
Longevity Cities
MARINA DEL RAY
9:30 AM
- The Brazen Capital Walk: Connecting Women, Capital & Opportunity: See Details Here
BrazenEra
6:00 PM
- Build an AI workflow editor, natively in Angular: See Details Here
Workflow Builder
SANTA MONICA
7:00 AM
- Founders Running Club Run in Santa Monica: See Details Here
Founders Running Club, MongoDb
9:00 AM
- MOLTEN - Spatial hackathon (ElevenLabs, AssemblyAI, Rokoko, Datafeel...): See Details Here
Field Lab
2:00 PM
- Founder/Investor Fight Club: See Details Here
Santa Monica Striking
- Matcha & Walk with Longevity L.A.: See Details Here
Longevity Cities
3:30 PM
- The Afterparty for Your Nervous System: See Details Here
Infinity Angels 777
6:00 PM
- The Era of Agentic Networking: See Details Here
Purpose:Labs
7:00 PM
- Hackathon: See Details Here
Builderbase, AI Collective
USC
9:00 AM
- ACM@USC TrojanHacks: See Details Here
ACM@USC
10:00 AM
- 0 to Shipped: See Details Here
LavaLab
10:30 AM
- [CreatorThon]: See Details Here
Intuition Intelligence, Inc.
VENICE
8:00 AM
- Open Air Health Tech: See Details Here
Open Air Health Tech, Bowshock, Govitamins App
10:00 AM
- Be You Louder: Find, Build, Tell Your Story: See Details Here
Be You Louder
10:30 AM
- touch ./SAND - The Voice Agent OUTDOOR Hackathon: See Details Here
Openbase
11:00 AM
- Community Build: Tech 4 Good Hackathon: See Details Here
The Sameritan Project
12:00 PM
- Lovable Hackathon Competition: See Details Here
Lucky Day Labs
6:00 PM
- Bots, Bytes & Bubbles Benefit: See Details Here
Distinguished Minds Institute dba thinqueBytes®
VIRTUAL
9:00 AM
- Ask a VP of Sales: Live GTM Office Hours for Early-Stage B2B Founders: See Details Here
Kat Rucker Consulting Group
11:00 AM
- Sip & Ship: The Un-Hackathon: See Details Here
Your Next Win
WEST HOLLYWOOD
11:00 AM
- The 10x Engineer Showed Up. The 10x Organization Didn't.: See Details Here
Workflow Builder, Tentaro
3:00 PM
- AI, FILM & THE NEW ECONOMICS of CREATIVITY: See Details Here
DIMSUMX
WESTSIDE
11:00 AM
- AI After 5: Pilates & AI: See Details Here
AI After 5
- 🍵 Global Dream Café: See Details Here
Global Dream Team Media LLC
2:00 PM
- Graphic Design & Digital Printing Meetup: See Details Here
Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More of West LA
7:00 PM
- Tech Industry Speed Networking West LA: See Details Here
Los Angeles Fun Events
Each session provides unique opportunities to gain insights, network, and explore various fields of tech innovation. For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.
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