Investor Group Asks Coca-Cola to Oust Activision CEO From Board

The SOC Investment Group, which advises union pension funds, has asked Coca-Cola Co. not to renominate Bobby Kotick to its board, continuing to put pressure on the chief executive officer of embattled video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc.

In a letter to Coca-Cola’s board on Thursday, SOC said Kotick “bears primary responsibility for the longstanding ‘frat boy’ corporate culture” at Activision, which is currently facing multiple lawsuits and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged instances of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. SOC Investment works with union pension funds affiliated with the Strategic Organizing Center that manage more than $250 billion in assets, according to its website. The group’s mission is to “enhance long-term shareholder returns through active ownership.”

Bobby Kotick

Photographer: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

SOC Investment, formerly known as CtW Investment Group, has targeted Kotick before. In 2021 it campaigned against Kotick’s compensation package and last month called on Kotick to resign as CEO of the U.S.’s second-largest gaming publisher and for two of Activision’s longest-serving board members to step down.

Coca-Cola, where Kotick has been a director since 2012, is the only other public company besides Santa Monica, California-based Activision where he serves as a director. “So given what we consider his grave failures as CEO at Activision, calling for him not to be renominated at Coca-Cola followed naturally,” SOC Research Director Richard Clayton said in an email. The New York Times reported earlier on SOC Investment’s actions.

In July, California’s Department of Fair Housing and Employment sued Activision and detailed a history of pervasive sexual harassment and retaliation. A report by the Wall Street Journal last month linked Kotick directly to allegations of mistreatment of women and suggested that he was aware for years of sexual misconduct, including rape, at the company but didn’t report it to the board. Claims continue to pour out from current and former employees. On Wednesday a woman who identified herself as a current employee stood in front of Blizzard’s headquarters, flanked by famed women’s rights lawyer Lisa Bloom, detailing a sexual harassment claim.

“Given these grave allegations, which include specific instances in which Mr. Kotick learned of abusive behavior by Activision executives but nevertheless sought to retain those executives or weaken the disciplinary action they faced, we think it is obvious that Mr. Kotick is not a suitable individual to serve on the Coca-Cola Company board of directors,” SOC Investment wrote in the letter to Maria Elena Lagomasino, lead independent director at Atlanta-based Coca-Cola.

Re-nominating Kotick to Coca-Cola’s board would also “contravene the company’s clear commitments to ‘mirror the diversity of the communities where we operate, but also to lead and advocate for a better shared future,’” according to the letter.

If the company does renominate Kotick to the board at next year’s annual meeting, SOC Investment said it would feel compelled to oppose not only his re-election, but also that of other directors.

Representatives for Coca-Cola declined to comment.

SOC Investment said the funds it works hold about 3 million shares in each company.

Separately, Activision Blizzard employees are creating a strike fund to help support workers that have been on a work stoppage since Monday over layoffs at one of the company’s studios. It’s the third time in five months that workers have walked off the job.

--With assistance from Brett Pulley and Jason Schreier.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jackie Davalos in New York at jdavalos10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Molly Schuetz at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net

Robin Ajello

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