California settles Activision Blizzard gender discrimination lawsuit for $54 million

A California regulator has settled its blockbuster lawsuit that alleged a tradition of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard. Now beneath the possession of Microsoft, the gaming firm pays about $54 million as a part of the settlement, based on a press launch from California’s Civil Rights Division (CRD).

The CRD (previously often called the Division of Honest Employment and Housing or DFEH) filed this lawsuit in July 2021, alleging that Activision Blizzard had a “frat boy” tradition the place ladies have been topic to sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. Following the swimsuit, staff walked out, executives together with then-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack and Blizzard’s former SVP of HR left the corporate, and, months later, The Wall Avenue Journal reported that CEO Bobby Kotick had identified of sexual misconduct allegations for years.

Nevertheless, as a part of the settlement settlement, the CRD stated that “no courtroom or any impartial investigation has substantiated any allegations” of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard and that there wasn’t proof of wrongdoing by Kotick, based on The New York Occasions. (The corporate informed the SEC final 12 months that an inside investigation discovered “no proof to recommend” that senior executives ignored allegations of gender harassment.) The WSJ additionally reported on the lawsuit on Friday.

If a courtroom approves the settlement, Activision Blizzard pays about $54,875,000 to “cowl direct aid to staff and litigation prices,” with $45,750,000 of that going to “a settlement fund devoted to compensating staff,” the CRD says.

Months after California’s lawsuit, Microsoft introduced that it supposed to amass Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal. Following a sequence of regulatory hurdles, that deal lastly closed in October. Kotick will keep at Activision Blizzard till the top of the 12 months.