Activision shareholders reach US$250 million settlement over Microsoft buyout

A sign is seen outside the Activision building in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Shareholders of Activision Blizzard reached a US$250 million settlement over allegations that the company’s former executives and Microsoft shortchanged them when Microsoft acquired the game maker for US$75.4 billion in 2023, according to a late Thursday court filing in a Delaware state court.

Shareholders in the maker of the “Call of Duty” video game, led by Swedish pension fund Sjunde AP-Fonden, accused former Activision Blizzard executives including Chief Executive Bobby Kotick of breaching their fiduciary duties to investors by agreeing to a US$95 per share takeover price.

The shareholders said Kotick rushed into the merger so he could keep his job and US$400 million of change-of-control benefits.

Microsoft and Kotick brought counterclaims against Sjunde, which will also be resolved in the settlement agreement.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Franklin Paul and Edmund Klamann)