Activision Blizzard has come under fire for failing to comply with the California workplace diversity law. However, Activision blamed the recent acquisition by Microsoft for not being able to abide by the law of appointing a third women to its board of directors.

The whopping $68 billion dollar deal with Microsoft was executed at a time when internal unrest within Activision Blizzard made its position quite weak in the market. The company is alleged to have a history of toxic work culture and sexual bias. 

According to California workplace law which puts out the mandate that a minimum of 3 women should be appointed to a board of 6 or more directors for any executive company located in California. This Corporations Code was laid down at the start of 2019 providing a 3 years of time window for companies to put it into effect.

Only two out of 10 board members of Activision Blizzard, Reveta Bowers and Dawn Ostroff ⁠— are women. With the release of the annual report from the company, Activision-Blizzard has failed to abide by the Californian law which necessitates them to put a third woman on their board of directors. However, the company blames the upcoming merger with Microsoft as the key reason for failing to comply.

“Under current California law, we were required to add an additional female director to our Board of Directors by the end of 2021. To meet this requirement and improve the diversity of our Board of Directors, the Company retained a search firm and began interviewing potential additional female directors in 2021,” it stated.

“However, since the Company’s current directors would cease to continue to serve on our Board of Directors upon consummation of our proposed transaction with Microsoft, we were unable to conclude the process in 2021. We will be continuing our efforts to appoint a new female director.”

Activision-Blizzard also claimed “since 2016, the number of women in our game development leadership roles has more than doubled”, with 24% of their employees identifying as women or non-binary. On the other hand, Microsoft had assured that this new acquirement would help the  company to make  “gaming safe, inclusive, and accessible to all”.