With Activision Deal, Microsoft Gets Another Scandal to Clean Up
Both gaming giants are trying to assure critics that change is happening.
Last week, Microsoft Corp. said it’s taking steps to manage a lingering sexual misconduct scandal surrounding the company and its co-founder, Bill Gates. This week, it agreed to buy a video game publisher besieged by its own sexual harassment and discrimination crisis.
The purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. for $68.7 billion will give Microsoft some of the biggest video games in consoles and smartphones and a beachhead in a possible next phase of computing, the metaverse. But first, Microsoft will need to deal with allegations that Activision underpaid women and allowed sexism and harassment to go unpunished. Failing to do so could make Microsoft a less hospitable environment for women and people from underrepresented groups and a less attractive place to work.