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Activision Facing Shareholder Lawsuit From NYC Pensions
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 is facing yet another lawsuit—this time from the Big Apple.
The New York City Employees’ Retirement System–along with various pension funds for the city’s firefighters, police and teachers–filed suit against the Santa Monica-based video game publisher in Delaware’s Court of Chancery last month, Axios reported on Wednesday.
The plaintiffs, all Activision Blizzard shareholders, claim that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is responsible for devaluing the pension plans’ investments by failing to adequately address allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at the company.
Kotick and his fellow Activision directors are also accused of pushing the company’s pending $69 billion merger with Microsoft “as a means to escape liability for their egregious breaches of fiduciary duty,” according to the lawsuit.
“Given Kotick’s personal responsibility and liability for Activision’s broken workplace, it should have been clear to the Board that he was unfit to negotiate a sale of the Company,” the lawsuit says. “But it wasn’t.”
In an email statement to dot.LA, Activision offered its standard response to lawsuits: “We disagree with the allegations made in this complaint and look forward to presenting our arguments to the Court.”
The complaint alleges that Kotick and Activision’s board harmed the pension plans’ investments by undervaluing the company’s stock and rushing into a deal with Microsoft after allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination surfaced at the company. In November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kotick knew about sexual misconduct allegations at Activision for years, but failed to inform the board or take action.
“It is now clear that during this lengthy tenure, Kotick was aware of numerous credible allegations of misconduct by the company’s senior executives—but did nothing to address them or prevent further offenses,” the lawsuit states. “Kotick therefore faced a strong likelihood of liability for breaches of fiduciary duty, together with other members of the Board.”
Kotick has faced pressure to resign as CEO in the wake of such reports, but remains in charge of the company and is reportedly eligible for more than $500 million in stock awards as a result of the Microsoft deal.
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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.
https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la
Fist Bumps, Hand Sanitizer and Pitch Sessions at the 2020 Montgomery Summit
08:06 AM | March 06, 2020
Ben Bergman
Everyone from financier Michael Milken to bankers and venture capitalists had an opinion about the market-rattling coronavirus at the annual Montgomery Summit in Santa Monica that gathered top-flight investors and entrepreneurs. "Some of you made a tough decision by coming here," conference organizer Jamie Montgomery told a lunchtime crowd. "I'll breath easy the next couple weeks if nothing happens."
Between pitch sessions from companies as varied as 3D rocket-maker Relativity Space to interactive game publisher Scopely, attendees sipped matcha lattes, pumped hand sanitizer and talked deals.
The normal routine of handshaking was out, replaced by somewhat awkward fist bumping. Attendees lingered longer than usual at bathroom sinks, making sure to vigorously wash their hands, and constantly pumped hand sanitizer from one of several germ eradication stations set-up at the Fairmont Hotel.
Montgomery told the crowd to alert him if "anything happened" in the next couple weeks, not the most reassuring thing to hear as people dug into their chicken salads and a discussion about the next decade of artificial intelligence.
The fast-spreading COVID-19 cast a pall over the summit that gathered hundreds as markets continued their roller coaster ride on Thursday.
Meanwhile, people like partner Marko Papic, chief strategist at Clocktower Group, were already predicting a recession.
"The U.S. consumer is 15% of global GDP, that's a large chunk," he told a crowd that had gathered for a pre-lunchtime talk about coronavirus. And warned that an over stimulus response from governments could lead to inflation.
The same day, Congress approved $8.3 billion to fight the virus that's topped 200 cases in the United States. In California, already under a state of emergency, a cruise ship with thousands aboard en route from Hawaii to San Francisco was held in quarantine as officials rushed to test passengers. And around the country signs that the virus would take an economic toll became in sharper focus
Montgomery said he had considered canceling the conference, but was assured by his discussion with health officials that the risk was low.
Then, just as the Montgomery Summit was set to open, Los Angeles County officials declared a health emergency, confirming six new cases of coronavirus, and warning that schools and business may need to be closed if COV1D-19 continues to spread.
Milken tried to temper what he painted as a bit of a frenzy, telling a crowd on Wednesday that he saw this as an opportunity to harness the power of big medical companies like United Health Care and Kaiser Permanente. He predicted in weeks small prototype test kits would be available for the virus. And suggested the medical giants come together to fight the virus, much like big companies did during World War II.
"Science can accomplish in an hour what might have taken in a year," he said. "We should be much better prepared to deal with this issue, once we get the facts."
Ben Bergman contributed reporting
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Rachel Uranga
Rachel Uranga is dot.LA's Managing Editor, News. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.
https://twitter.com/racheluranga
rachel@dot.la
In 2022, Get Ready for a Battle of Kitchen Robot Concepts
04:51 PM | December 29, 2021
As Restaurants Scramble for Workers, It's 'Order Up' for Miso Robotics and Its Burger-Flipping Robot
The coming year will be a proving year around all the hype of robotics in food that was created in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the reality will set in that the labor shortage in restaurants is not a fleeting issue, though it may become less acute than it had been during the height of the pandemic. Restaurants will need to expand their robotics and AI pilots and roll-out new solutions.
The previous three years have felt a little like the 1997-2000 dot-com era for restaurant robotics companies. At that time, everyone knew the web was the future, and money was flooding in, but there weren’t yet any substantial winners and it was hard to predict exactly how the disruption would occur.. 2022 (and 2023) will be when we find out who can actually operationalize their product to solve the massive issues that aren’t going away for the food service industry.
I think that we will actually start seeing brand spec robotics and AI as early as 2022 within their standard new-restaurant package. Moving from proof of concept to industry standard is massive. Big restaurant chains will expand and begin to trust and try a variety of new automation products on the market, rather than just “exploring” individual robots as a kind of one-off approach.’ Artificial intelligence will also develop to a point where even mom-and-pop restaurants will have access to that type of technology to try out.
The tide has turned to food technology. Next year will be the year many realize it’s not going back.
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Jake Brewer
Jake Brewer is chief strategy officer at Miso Robotics, where he focuses on customer expansion, working closely with business and product development teams to meet the demands of a changing industry.
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