Abuse allegations overshadow Activision Blizzard’s Q2 2021 revenue growth

Activision Blizzard reported its second quarter financial results yesterday, beating expectations with 19% revenue growth to $2.29 billion. 

The financial results come the day Activision Blizzard announced that Blizzard president J. Allen Brack is leaving the company and less than two weeks after the lawsuit the company faces from California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing over harassment and sex discrimination allegations. 

“With respect to our financial performance, we are pleased that the company continued to deliver strong results in the second quarter, and we are raising our outlook for the year,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. 

“We remain intensely focused on the well-being of our employees and we are committed to doing everything possible to ensure that our company has a welcoming, supportive and safe environment where all of our team members can thrive.”

The company’s stock was up more than 5% following the earnings release.

According to the report, for Q2 2021, net bookings were $1.92 billion, down 7% as compared to $2.08 billion for Q2 2020. The company’s monthly active users were 408 million, down 4.6% from 428 million a year earlier. The company had reported it had approximately 400 million monthly active users (MAUs) in 2020. 

Earnings per share were $1.12, as compared with $0.75 for the second quarter of 2020. 

Activision Blizzard management warned investors during the second quarter earnings call that the California lawsuit may drive continued negative publicity and reduced productivity within the company, possibly impacting the future financial state of the business. “We are carefully monitoring all aspects of our business for any such impacts,” they stated. (via Gamasutra)

Ahead of the company’s Q2 earnings call, a class action lawsuit was filed against Activision Blizzard by Rosen Law Firm on behalf of the company’s investors. The investors claim that Activision Blizzard made false and / or misleading statements and / or failed to disclose a number of things, including:

• That it “discriminated against women and minority employees” and 
• That complaints for “harassment, discrimination, and retaliation” made to HR and leadership “went unaddressed.”