U.S. Justice Department, SEC investigating Activision Blizzard for insider stock trading

The United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have opened separate investigations against Activision Blizzard over suspicions surrounding its stocks being bought by Fox co-founder Barry Diller, socialite Alexander von Furstenberg, and music magnate David Geffen. Both federal agencies allege that the insider trading occurred before Microsoft acquired the embattled game publisher for nearly $70 billion on January 18.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the three men bought $108 million of Activision Blizzard shares just a few days before Microsoft announced the sale that shook the game industry to its core. The deal netted them a profit of $60 million, which makes their shares now worth $168 million.

The sheer coincidence of the men buying Activision Blizzard stocks and Microsoft’s subsequent purchase of the company, which has yet to be approved by the FTC, raised plenty of suspicions from the Justice Department and SEC. More so because of Diller’s connection to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, whom he called “a long time friend.”

Diller served with Kotick on the board of directors at Coca-Cola until Kotick stepped down from the role in the wake of abuse and harassment allegations at the center of the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. Diller is also friends with Geffen and stepfather to von Furstenberg, making the insider trade even more suspicious.

As Diller told WSJ on the record regarding the stock trade with Activision Blizzard before Microsoft’s historic purchase, “it was simply a lucky bet. We acted on no information of any kind from anyone. It is one of those coincidences.” Meanwhile, von Furstenberg said he had been “buying Activision stock prior to that and the thought was that Activision at some point would either go private, or would be acquired at some point.”

According to Deadline, the magnates privately arranged the stock purchases with JPMorgan Chase, which was required to report the trades to law enforcement after Microsoft’s deal went public as part of a 2020 criminal settlement over market-manipulation claims.