Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has alleged that an ongoing lawsuit objecting to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was secretly designed to assist rival writer Embracer Group.
As reported by Sport File, the lawsuit was filed again in 2022 by a Swedish pension fund referred to as Sjunde AP-Fonden, often known as AP7, and alleged that Kotick rushed the sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft so he may keep away from the results of the sexual misconduct claims on the time.
In a lately filed ‘reply’ to the lawsuit, Kotick and his legal professionals not solely denied the declare, however has made a counterclaim that AP7 had ulterior motives in submitting the swimsuit, together with “to exert collateral hurt on Activision” and to assist Embracer.
“This Delaware lawsuit was apparently aimed to assist pave the way in which for Embracer to extend its foothold within the California market on the expense of Activision, making it tougher for Activision to recruit expertise and broaden by way of [merges and acquisitions] exercise of the type that Activision relied on to develop traditionally,” Kotick and his authorized crew claimed.
Kotick claims that as a result of AP7’s view chairman Emma Ihre was an govt at Embracer on the time of the lawsuit’s submitting, he believes the lawsuit was filed to mount a “collateral assault on Activision [that] additionally seems to be tied to Embracer’s want to spice up gross sales of its video games whereas leaving Activision hamstrung within the improvement of its personal video games that competed in opposition to Embracer’s titles”.
In an announcement to Sport File, Embracer has denied Kotick’s allegations, saying it didn’t should depend on a lawsuit to compete with Activision.
“We’re humbled of Mr Kotick’s comment that we had been competing with Activision on this degree,” an Embracer Group consultant instructed the publication.
“However, maybe troublesome to just accept for Mr Kotick, however we didn’t and don’t want any assist from a Swedish pension fund in competing with Activision.
“Thus, briefly, there have been no coordination or collaboration between Embracer and AP7 referring to any of Mr. Kotick’s statements. No agenda or directions had been directed from Embracer by way of Emma Ihre or on to AP7.”
