Microsoft Settles Activision Suit for $250 Million

Microsoft will pay $250 million to resolve litigation brought by a Swedish pension fund over its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard completed in 2022, according to Reuters.

Undervaluation Claims

The fund, Sjunde AP-Fonden (AP7), alleged the takeover price was too low. It sued Activision Blizzard and then-CEO Bobby Kotick, claiming the transaction had been hurried through to limit damage from the company's sexual misconduct scandal at the time.

Court And Countersuit Developments
A judge in Delaware’s Court of Chancery permitted the case to advance last fall. Kotick responded by hiring prominent lawyer Alex Spiro and launching a countersuit. That filing reportedly asserted that gaming publisher Embracer had encouraged the Swedish fund’s action as a way of targeting a competitor.

Kotick’s legal team declared in the countersuit that their client would “shine a light on the gross misconduct of the activists who invented the false narrative of misconduct at Activision” and would reveal ties between those parties and AP7. The statement added that the court and public should recognize “the abuse of legal process through which AP7, regulators, and union activists brought false and wholly unsubstantiated claims against Activision and Mr. Kotick.”

The $250 million payment, which surpasses the full production cost of 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2, ends every remaining claim tied to the original acquisition dispute.

Activision Blizzard had earlier paid $54 million in 2023 to settle a separate California suit alleging discrimination against female employees. That agreement contained the declaration that “no court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that: there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard [or] that Activision Blizzard senior executives ignored, condoned, or tolerated a culture of systemic harassment, retaliation, or discrimination.”