Here are your FOX Business Flash top headlines for April 15th.
Activision Blizzard is cooperating with a federal investigation into its CEO’s friends’ trafficking ahead of the gaming company’s sale to Microsoft Corp. announced, it said in a securities file on Friday.
It received requests for information from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and a subpoena from a Justice Department grand jury, the Call of Duty creators said in an amended proxy filing.
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The inquiries “appear to relate to their respective investigations into trading of securities by third parties — including persons known to Activision Blizzard’s CEO — prior to the announcement of the proposed transaction,” it said.
The photo shows the Activision Blizzard booth during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file) (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong / AP Newsroom)
Microsoft in January agreed to acquire Activision for $95 per share, or $68.7 billion in total, in the video game industry’s largest deal in history.
The company did not name the parties or say whether the grand jury’s subpoena was directed at an employee.
PROSECUTOR CLAIMS THAT NEWSOM FILED ACTIVISION ACTION
The filing did not disclose when it received the subpoena or SEC request for information.
Media moguls Barry Diller and David Geffen and investor Alexander von Furstenberg bought stock options after von Furstenberg met with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and days before the sale to Microsoft was announced, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
| ticker | security | Last | To change | To change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATVI | ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INC. | 78.93 | -0.17 | -0.21% |
| MSFT | microsoft corp | 279.83 | -7.79 | -2.71% |
“Activision Blizzard has informed these authorities that it intends to be fully cooperative in this investigation,” the company said.
Diller told Reuters last month that none of the three knew about a potential takeover and acted on the belief that Activision was undervalued and had the potential to be privatized or acquired.
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The amended proxy filing, which included information about its cooperation with the SEC and DOJ, came after shareholders sued the company for failing to provide a preliminary power of attorney in the sale.
(Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Himani Sarkar)