Reuters reports that Microsoft has agreed to a $250 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by Swedish pension fund Sjunde AP-Fonden over allegations that, simply put, Activision sold out too quickly and too cheaply when it was acquired by Microsoft.
Microsoft dropped $69 billion on Activision Blizzard in the 2022 deal, a nice, hefty sum of money by any measure. But later that year, as reported by GameFile, Sjunde AP-Fonden—also known as AP7—filed suit, alleging the deal was rushed by former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in order to avoid fallout from reports of sexual misconduct at the company and protect his own massive payout from the deal.
Kotick filed his own countersuit, saying that the AP7 lawsuit was at least in part "aimed to help pave the way for [Swedish game company] Embracer to increase its foothold in the California market at the expense of Activision." Embracer said in response that it was "humbled" by the claim but denied it, adding that "we did not and do not need any help from a Swedish pension fund in competing with Activision." This all happened before Embracer's $2 billion implosion, remember, so it was still on a very big roll at this point.
Anyway, that's all water under the bridge now, because the $250 million settlement means it all goes away, including the countersuits filed by Kotick and Microsoft.
The settlement is not an admission by Microsoft, as explained in the following passage:
Microsoft is entering into this Stipulation solely to avoid the burden, expense, and distraction of continued litigation. Microsoft does not substantiate any allegations that there has been systemic or widespread workplace misconduct at Activision; that Activision senior executives ignored, condoned, or tolerated a culture of systemic harassment, retaliation, or discrimination; or that Activision's Board of Directors, including its Chief Executive Officer, Kotick, acted improperly with regard to the handling of any instances of workplace misconduct.
Plaintiff acknowledges that its original claims were based in part on media reporting and characterizations of allegations made by the California Civil Rights Department (the "CRD"), which the CRD itself admitted in a court-approved consent decree have never been "substantiated" by any "court or independent investigation" and now have been expressly withdrawn.
Plaintiff acknowledges that, based on the materials provided to date, there is compelling information which undermines any claim that the Board or Mr. Kotick failed to operate in good faith with respect to the matters alleged in the Action.
$250 million sounds like an awful lot of money, and, okay, it is. But it's also less than one-half of 1% of what Microsoft paid for Activision Blizzard in the first place; a relative pittance, in other words, the equivalent of adding an extra dime to the purchase price of Subnautica 2. Sure, you could use that dime for something else—throw it at a cybertruck, maybe—but are you really going to miss it? Probably not. So for the equivalent of some megacorp couch money, I imagine Microsoft is happy to finally put a pin in this.
