“I mean, think about it.
I dated Sheryl Sandberg.”
Kotick denied any wrongdoing.
“There was a petition.
Like, a thousand people signed it.”
“That was fake,” says Kotick.
Kotick then expands the discussion to encompass the wider claims of workplace misconduct at Activision Blizzard.
“I can tell you exactly what happened,” he says.
“The Communication Workers of America Union started looking at technology.
So they targeted a bunch of different businesses.Google.
Some other tech companies.
Tesla, SpaceX and us.”
“It’s the power of unions,” Kotick continues.
“I didn’t really understand this until we went through this process.
“They’re so clever,” Kotick continued on the podcast.
People are harassed or theyre retaliated against.
The guy and the lady who ran CWA, they are really smart.”
“They came up with this plan, hired a PR firm, and they started attacking our company.
They got these two agencies to file these lawsuits to claim there was some sexual harassment.
We didn’t have any of that.
Ultimately they had to admit that this was not truthful.”
“Did you know this was all happening?”
“A lot of the press was made up by union activists.”
“I didn’t know any of it,” says Kotick.
“I’m one of those people.
Like on the spot.
It’s bad for recruiting and its bad for retention.”
“I mean, think about it.
I dated Sheryl Sandberg,” he laughs.
“You think we had a problem with pay equity and gender pay at Activision?
Kotick denied the allegations and the ex-girlfriend later retracted some of her claims.
Kotick reportedly settled the matter out of court.
Kotick has also faced suggestions that he considered buying out press to ensure positive coverage for Activision.
Fromthe WSJ:
We’ve reached out to the CWA for comment on all this.
